Two people killed in insurgent attacks in Baghdad

Two people, including an Iraqi ministry's senior official, were killed and five wounded in insurgent attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry source said.

Hashim Mahdi al-Rubaie, director general in the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction, was shot dead by gunmen while travelling in his car in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Qahira, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In separate incident, gunmen attacked workers who were setting up concrete barriers in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah in the north of the capital, killing one and wounding two others, the source said.

Three more police commando members were also wounded when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, the source added.

Earlier in the day, a suicide truck bomb struck the Kurdish regional ministry of interior in Arbil, killing 20 people and wounding 70 others, local police said.

"A suicide bomber blew up a truck loaded with some 800 km of TNT on a busy main road outside the Kurdish regional Interior Ministry in the center of the city at about 8:00 a.m. (0400 GMT)," they said.

The powerful blast destroyed the front part of the ministry building and damaged nearby buildings, including the regional parliament building, according to the source.

Arbil, 350 km north of Baghdad, is the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region, which has been relatively calm despite the violence in other parts of the war-torn country.

Source: Xinhua