Explosions kill at least 8 in Baghdad

At least six people were killed and 10 wounded when suicide bomber blew up a minivan packed with explosives at a checkpoint near a central Baghdad hotel on Monday.

The blast near the popular Sadeer Hotel happened at dawn an interior ministry official said.

In March, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al Qaida in Iraq purportedly posted a video on a Web site showing the huge explosion at the Sadeer Hotel, killing four and wounding 40 others, including 30 American contractors.

Al-Zarqawi's group described the Sadeer as the "hotel of the Jew."

At 8:30 am another car bomb targeted a police commando patrol under the Harithiyah bridge in the west of the city, killing two policemen and wounding seven, the interior ministry official said.

The attacks come one day after a suicide truck bomb packed with 220 kg of explosives on Saturday killed at least 22 people - the worst attack in more than a week.

The suicide bomber reportedly blew up a truck full of explosives outside the Al Rashid police station in the Al Mashtal neighbourhood of eastern Baghdad.

"It appears that the bomber who was driving the truck wanted to enter the police station, but for some reasons the explosives exploded 20 metres before the police station," an interior ministry official said.