Gunmen killed a pair of Iraqi ministry officials in separate incidents Thursday morning as they were headed to work in Baghdad, police said. According to police, Brig. Gen. Iyad Imad Mahdi with the Ministry of Defense was gunned down at 7:15 a.m. (11:15 p.m. EDT) in the western neighborhood of Jihad. About 45 minutes later, Col. Jamal Ahmed Hussien was killed when gunmen opened fire on his car in the al-Amin neighborhood of eastern Baghdad as he was on his way to the Interior Ministry. Also Thursday, two car bombs exploded in an eastern Baghdad marketplace, causing numerous casualties, CNN quoted Iraqi police as saying. Video from the scene showed several burning vehicles and billowing black smoke. According to police, a suicide car bomber detonated in front of a movie theater. A second bomb exploded near a mosque on the other side of the market a short time later.
