Activists ambushed a convoy carrying a top interior ministry official in the Iraqi capital, killing a bodyguard and injuring three other people, including his son, an official in the ministry said.
Gen. Tariq al-Baldawi, a deputy interior minister, escaped unhurt after men in two cars opened fire on his convoy in Baghdad's western Adel neighborhood, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The attack came as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived in Baghdad Tuesday for his second visit in three months.
Meanwhile, in the northeastern city of Kirkuk, activists injured two members of a police patrol late Monday, police Brig. Sarhat Kadier said. On its Web site, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army group claimed responsibility for machine-gun fire attacks on three Iraqi police cars in Kirkuk Monday evening.
Attackers also placed a bomb in the undercarriage of a doctor's car. The device exploded as the physician entered a store, sparing him but wounding two nearby civilians, Kadir said.
In the meantime, the government of Poland decided Tuesday to pullout troops from Iraq at the end of this year, making official an earlier proposal, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said.
"At the time of the expiry of the Security Council's mandate - meaning at the end of 2005 - the operations of the Polish stabilization mission should be finished," Reuters cited Szmajdzinski as telling a news conference following a cabinet meeting.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
