Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi police officer and a soldier were killed and nine people injured in bomb explosions in Baghdad on Thursday morning, an Interior Ministry source said.

    A soldier was killed and three others were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near their patrol in the al-Qahira neighborhood in northern Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    In separate attack also on Thursday morning, a police commando officer was killed when a bomb planted in his car went off while he was on his way to work in Baghdad's southern neighborhood of Saydiyah, the source said.

    The explosive charge, which was of a magnetic kind badly damaged the victim's car, he added.

    The powerful blast also caused damages to several nearby civilian cars. Iraqi security forces immediately sealed off the scene to secure the area, according to the source.

    Meanwhile, six civilians were wounded by another roadside bomb explosion near the Maysaloon Square in eastern Baghdad, said the source.

    The attacks came as the Iraqi parliament is set to vote on the long-waited security pact between Baghdad and Washington that would be a road map for the U.S. troops withdrawal from Iraq in three years.