Baghdad governor assassinated
Bomb kills at least 10 near Green Zone; 5 U.S. troops also die
 |  Baghdad Gov. Ali Al-Haidri had survived an assassination attempt in September. |
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 Militants assassinate Ali Al-Haidri, the governor of Baghdad.
 Suicide bombers on Monday kill dozens in Baghdad.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The governor of Baghdad province was assassinated Tuesday morning in the Iraqi capital, an Iraq Interior Ministry official said.
A bodyguard for Gov. Ali Al-Haidri also was killed and two other guards wounded in the road ambush, officials said.
Witnesses said they saw an intense gunbattle between the assassins and the governor's bodyguards.
Al-Haidri was among the senior members of Iraq's Interim government. He had survived an assassination attempt in September when attackers ambushed his convoy using a roadside bomb and firing machine guns, the Interior Ministry said.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking to reporters in Thailand on a tour of tsunami-stricken areas, said news of the assassination saddened him.
"It once again shows that there are these murderers and terrorists, former regime elements in Iraq, that don't want to see an election," Powell said. "They want to go back to the tyranny of the Saddam Hussein regime, and that's not going to happen. The Iraqi people don't want it to happen."
Iraq's elections are set for January 30.
In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that President Bush got a call from interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on Monday to discuss the security situation in Iraq and the elections.
McClellan usually briefs the press about Bush's calls with world leaders but did not volunteer the information until after The New York Times published an article about it.
McClellan declined to give specifics about the call, which lasted 10 minutes, except to say there was "no discussion" of delaying the vote.
"Both leaders discussed the importance of making sure they have the fullest possible participation in the upcoming election," he said.
Also Tuesday, a suicide truck bomb killed 10 people and wounded 60 others near Baghdad's Green Zone, the heavily fortified area where Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy are based.
Eight of the dead were Iraqi police commandos and two were civilians, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said.
The explosion happened near an Iraqi Security Forces compound and a palace used by U.S.-led coalition forces, according to an Iraqi police spokesman.
The truck was a fuel tanker laden with explosives, the Interior Ministry spokesman said.
It was the second time in as many days that the Green Zone area was targeted by a bomb.
On Monday, a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint west of the Green Zone, hitting a three-vehicle civilian convoy. Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that three Britons were among those killed in that attack.
Earlier Monday, a suicide car bomb attack near the political party headquarters of the interim prime minister killed at least two Iraqi police officers.
The militant group Jaish Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack, citing Iraq's January elections. The group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Iraq, including a December 21 bombing that killed 22 people at a U.S. base near the northern city of Mosul. (Full story)
Also Monday, a suicide bomb attack killed four Iraqi soldiers and wounded 14 other people at a checkpoint in Balad, north of Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said.
The attacks are the latest against Iraqi authorities, including soldiers, police and politicians, in advance of this month's elections. U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned insurgents would likely step up attacks in an attempt to derail the elections.
Iraqi voters are expected to choose a 275-member transitional national assembly. That body will put together a permanent constitution that will go before voters in a referendum. If the law is approved, the plan calls for elections for a permanent government.
Other developments
Five American troops were killed Tuesday in Iraq, the U.S. military said. Three soldiers died in a bomb attack in northern Baghdad, a Marine was killed "while conducting security and stabilization operations" in the western province of al Anbar and a soldier from the 1st Infantry Division was killed in Balad, the military said. The deaths bring the number of American troops killed in the Iraqi war to 1,339.Defense Department officials said Tuesday that 10,252 U.S. troops had suffered combat-related injuries since the war began in March 2003. Some 5,396 have been wounded seriously enough that they were unable to return to the battlefield, and 4,856 injured troops were able to return to duty in Iraq, the department said.Three members of the Iraqi national guard were killed and two wounded in an attack on their patrol Tuesday near Baquba, northeast of the capital, a U.S. military official said. A surprisingly frank hourlong TV call-in program, "The Iraqi Podium," is giving Iraqis the chance to pepper Allawi, the interim prime minister, with questions, from the mundane to the serious. Judging by the show's popularity, Iraqis are taking advantage, The Associated Press reported. (Full story)CNN's Arwa Damon, Auday Sadik and Mohammad Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
