A civilian was killed and two others were injured, including a senior Iraqi army officer in Baghdad's violence on Thursday, while the Iraqi police collected 17 corpses during the past 24 hours, an Interior Ministry source said.

A civilian was killed and another injured when a bomb detonated inside their car in the afternoon in Baghdad's western neighborhood of Mansour, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The police is investigating the incident, the source said.

Separately, gunmen opened fire at the car of the Iraqi Army Staff Brigadier Muhammad Naser Jawhar in the Qadsiyah neighborhood in western Baghdad, severely wounding him, he said.

In addition, the Iraqi police patrols picked up 17 unidentified bodies from Baghdad's streets, including 14 in the Karkh area on the western part of the Tigris River that bisects the Iraqi capital, the source said.

The bullet-riddled bodies were found blindfolded, showing signs of torture, he said.

Violence and gruesome finding of unidentified bodies continue in the capital despite five months of US and Iraqi security plan aiming at putting rampant violence under control.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2007)