Sepcial Report: Tension accelerates in Iraq

    TIKRIT, May 21 (Xinhua) -- A high-ranking commander of an Iraqi army brigade survived a car bomb attack in Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, a local police source said on Sunday.

    "A parked explosive-packed car went off near the convoy of Brigadier Abdul Jabbar al-Jabouri, commander of the Tikrit based 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, while he was passing by the main road in Baiji," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Al-Jabouri survived the attack, but a civilian truck driver was wounded and several nearby civilian cars were damaged, the source said.

    In a separate incident, a roadside bomb detonated near a U.S. patrol while it passed by an intersection near Baghdad's Shaab Stadium, a Baghdad police source said.

    It was not clear whether there was any casualty, as U.S. soldiers immediately cordoned off the area, the source said. However, the source quoted witnesses as saying that a U.S. Humvee was damaged in the attack.

    Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb went off in a busy market in a Baghdad southeastern neighborhood, leaving up to 15 people wounded, police said.

    Violence mounted in the war-torn country after three years of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, despite the formation of a new government on Saturday. Enditem