BAGHDAD, April 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Gunmen attacked a senior official in the Iraqi interior ministry in southern Baghdad Wednesday, wounding him and his driver, police said.

    "Unknown gunmen seriously wounded Col. Naji Musab Hussein and his driver in a drive-by shooting in Dora district in southern Baghdad," an interior ministry source told Xinhua.

    He said the official and his driver were in critical conditions as they sustained several gunshots in their bodies.

    On Tuesday, gunmen ambushed a convoy of Tariq al-Baldawi, Iraqi deputy interior minister in Baghdad's Adel neighborhood, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding four others, but Baldawi escapedunhurt.

    It was the latest attack against Iraqi government officials, who are accused by insurgents of "infidel collaborators" with US forces.

    A police general in charge of the passport office in the ministry was killed in a drive-by shooting last month. Enditem