Bombings rock Iraq on Baathist coup anniversary
U.S. soldier, at least 7 Iraqis, killed in separate attacks
 |  An Iraqi police officer guards the site of a car bomb attack that targeted Iraqi Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan in Baghdad. |
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 A pair of car bombings kill six. CNN's Michael Holmes reports
 Baghdad residents rejoice in the re-opening of a park, closed since the beginning of the war.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgent fighters launched deadly attacks across Iraq on Saturday, killing a U.S. soldier and at least seven Iraqis in separate attacks.
The bombings took place on the 36th anniversary of the coup that brought the Baath Party, and eventually Saddam Hussein, into power.
The U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in northern Iraq. Five Iraqis died when a government minister's convoy was bombed in Baghdad, and an Iraqi National Guard officer was killed by a suicide bomber at his base in Mahmudiyah.
A police chief in a town south of Baghdad was also killed, but details were not immediately available.
Also Saturday, the Philippines continued to pull its forces from Iraq to ensure the release of a Filipino trucker held hostage by militants.
In the Baghdad strike, a car bomb hit the convoy of Iraqi Minister of Justice Malik Dohan al-Hassan and killed five people, most believed to be his guards, the Coalition Press Information Center said. Al-Hassan escaped injury, Iraqi authorities said, but several others were wounded.
The car bomb went off near the minister's home in the Jamiya district of central Baghdad.
Moments after that explosion, five Iraqi police officers were wounded nearby when another bomb went off, an Iraqi police source said.
A second car bomb detonated near Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of the capital. The coalition said an Iraqi National Guardsman was killed, as well as the driver of the explosives-laden vehicle.
A group linked to Jordanian-born terrorism suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attack on the Iraqi justice minister, according to messages on two militant Islamist Web sites.
The claim was purportedly issued by the Unification and Jihad group, which claims al-Zarqawi as its emir, or leader. CNN has not verified the authenticity of the messages.
"With success from God, your brothers, the mujahedeen in the Unification and Jihad group managed to implement an attack on the traitor Malek al-Hassan, the Justice minister in the government of traitors, in which one of the lions in the Martyrs Squadron followed him," the message said.
U.S. soldier killed
The US. soldier died Saturday when his convoy was struck by a roadside bomb near Beiji in northern Iraq, according to the U.S. military.
Another soldier was wounded.
The fatality brings the U.S. troop death toll to 896 -- 665 in combat and 231 in nonhostile incidents.
Troops returning to Philippines
Brig. Gen. Jovito Talparan, the head of the Philippines' forces in Iraq, and ten of his troops arrived Saturday in Kuwait and will travel to Manila on Sunday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert said.
The Philippines recalled Talparan on Friday as it continues to remove personnel from Iraq to comply with the demands of kidnappers holding a truck driver hostage.
The troops, making up what the Philippines government says is strictly a humanitarian contingent, originally numbered 51.
On Wednesday, Albert said in a written statement that some members had already left Iraq. With the Talparan-headed group gone, 32 members of the Filipino contingent remain.
The Philippines government said the others will leave the country soon.
Angelo de la Cruz, 46, who has eight children, was abducted last week. His abductors had threatened to behead him if the Philippines did not withdraw its forces from Iraq.
Other developments
The Iskandariyah police chief was killed Saturday, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. The official did not provide details as to how Lt. Col. Rahim Ali died in the town about 25 miles south of Baghdad. News agencies said Ali was shot dead on his way to work, but that has not been confirmed.A roadside bombing wounded three Iraqis and a U.S. soldier Friday in southern Baghdad. A police colonel said the explosive missed a U.S. military convoy passing along a road in the Baya'a district but damaged a civilian vehicle. One of the injured Iraqis was reportedly in critical condition.A saboteur attempting to plant a bomb Saturday under a natural gas pipeline set off the explosion early and killed himself, The Associated Press reported. The pipeline was undamaged in the explosion in Riayd, about 30 miles southwest of Baghdad, said Col. Sarhat Qader of the Kirkuk police.CNN's Maria Ressa contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
