Gunmen ambushed the convoy of the Iraqi president Jalal Talabani who wasn't in any of the cars in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing two of his bodyguards and wounding three others, a police said.

"A group of armed men blew up a roadside bomb before opening small arms fire south of Tuz Khurmato," a source from the Salahudin provincial police told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The convoy was travelling to Baghdad when the attack took place, the source said.

The Kurdish militia cordoned off the area and blocked the road between Baghdad and Tuz Khurmato, he added.

On Tuesday, Iraq's Environment Minister Narmin Othman escaped an assassination attempt when armed men attacked her convoy near the town of Adhaim, some 100 km north of Baghdad, as the female Kurdish minister was travelling from the northern city of Sulaimaniya to Baghdad. police said.

Three of her bodyguards were wounded in the clash, they said.

Source: Xinhua