Bomb Explodes Near Iraqi Ministry Building

News agencies said several people were killed and a number of others injured by the explosion outside the Education Ministry, but the exact number of casualties remained unclear. The blast damaged the ministry building and also destroyed several vehicles.

Also today, two Iraqi security guards said they were freed by abductors overnight but that the gunmen were still holding an American and a Nepali, as well as two other Iraqi guards they seized from the compound of a Saudi company in Baghdad yesterday.

Early today, the U.S. military conducted new air raids against the Western Iraqi city of Al-Fallujah.

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said the overnight bombings targeted a hideout of suspected militants in the city.

(Reuters/AP/AFP/dpa)