A suicide car bomber killed at least four people in an attack near the offices of a leading Kurdish party in northern Iraq today, hours after two others were killed in a car bombing west of Baghdad.
The attacks near the Kirkuk offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - whose leader is currently head of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council - and a US-backed local council appeared to target the American-led occupation.
In London, US President George W. Bush said the United States could increase the number of US troops in Iraq. "We will finish the job we have begun," Mr Bush said at a news conference with British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair. "We will match the security needs with the number of troops necessary to secure Iraq."
In Kirkuk, about 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, a huge explosion threw up a cloud of black smoke, shaking buildings across town. The blast flattened a wall around the green-painted headquarters of the PUK and shattered windows at a nearby primary school, wounding several children.
Witnesses to the attack were wounded or killed and it was not clear exactly what happened.
"I was walking in the street when a car exploded," said Mr Hussein Ali (52). "I didn't know if it was night or day."
A police officer said he was "100 per cent sure" it was a suicide bombing.
Hospital officials put the death toll at four plus the bomber, whose remains were brought to the hospital in a bag.
They said the toll could rise as body fragments were still being found strewn across a roundabout opposite the blast site. Nearly 40 people were wounded.
Tonight a bomb detonated as a US convoy drove past today killed one American soldier and wounded two near the restive Iraqi town of Ramadi, a military spokeswoman said.
She said the attack happened east of Ramadi, in the "Sunni triangle" region where much of the resistance against US forces is concentrated.