Nine people were killed and 10 others injured when a suicide car bomber struck the convoy of an Iraqi ministry on Thursday morning, an Interior Ministry source said.

"A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into the convoy of Mahmoud Jawad al-Radhi, the minister of labour, in the Bab al- Sharji area in central Baghdad," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Radhi, a Shiite, was not at the convoy when the attack occurred, the source said.

Some of Radhi's bodyguards and policemen were among the killed and wounded people, he said.

Deadly attacks continue in Iraq despite the US and Iraqi officials announced a relative lull in violence during the past months.

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2008)