A suicide car bomber struck an Interior Ministry convoy in east Baghdad on Sunday, killing seven police commandos and two civilians. Earlier a bomb mounted on a bicycle blew apart a music store at a market in Hillah, south of the capital, killing one, The Associated Press quoted police and hospital officials as saying. In the early hours Sunday, U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, killing at least eight Iraqis in an east Baghdad slum. The clash was certain to raise tension between U.S. and Iraqi security forces and followers of al-Sadr who is building opposition to the country's new constitution, which will be voted on in a national referendum Oct. 15. The attack on the three-vehicle convoy of commandos, also wounded 19, including at least 11 members of the elite unit, said Capt. Nabil Abdel-Qader. The bombing in Hillah, a city about 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad, wounded 48 people near the music shop, according to Dr. Mazen Abdul-Sada of Hillah General Hospital.
