BAGHDAD, Oct 14: A suicide car bomb exploded on Tuesday near the Turkish Embassy here, killing the car’s driver and another man driving nearby besides injuring seven others, including two embassy staff members, the US military, Iraqi officials and witnesses said.

It was the second car bombing in the Iraqi capital in three days.

US troops and Iraqi police later sealed off the area, preventing journalists from approaching the building.

“A car bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish embassy” in the Al-Waziriyah neighbourhood of central Baghdad, Col Thamer Saadi said.

“... There were six wounded — two embassy guards and four civilians,” he said.

Witness Ahmed Hashim said a man driving nearby was also killed in the explosion. Another witness said police had shot at a fast-driving pick-up truck shortly after the blast, apparently killing the driver.

Hashim put the number of wounded at seven — an embassy translator, a cook and his assistant, and another employee of the mission as well as three others.

Another witness, Baker al-Kosseri, said the car used in the bombing was a blue Chevrolet with a licence plate from the district of Babylon, south of Baghdad.

“Five minutes before the explosion, US troops had been standing next to a nearby bank, but they had gone before the blast,” he said.

Shortly after the blast police fired in the air and detained at least one protester as several dozen people chanted slogans in support of Saddam Hussein near the scene, an AFP correspondent said.

One Iraqi police officer kicked a shirtless protester, yelling at him: “You want Saddam back? Take this,” before the man was handcuffed and led away.—Agencies