A roadside bomb targeting a US military convoy has exploded in a busy square in central Baghdad, wounding a US civilian contractor and four Iraqi nationals, a US military spokesman said.

The bomb damaged two civilian cars being escorted by the US military on Saturday, forcing their occupants to be evacuated to the military vehicles.

Speaking to Aljazeera from Baghdad, Ziyad al-Samarai, an Iraqi journalist, said the explosion on Saturday at 8.30am apparently targeted a US military convoy and other US vehicles.

Witnesses and police sources confirmed that foreigners were travelling in the targeted civilian vehicles.

Four Iraqis, two men and two women, and an unidentified number of foreigners have been injured in the explosion, al-Samarai told Aljazeera.

They were rushed to a nearby hospital. The two men were later discharged while the two women remained hospitalised, he added.

Al-Qadisiya area witnesses ongoing anti-US attacks as it is highly frequented by US forces, al-Samarai said.

Basra Sunni imam killed

In a separate incident the Imam of a mosque in Basra, southern Iraq, was killed on Friday.

The influential Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) in Iraq said the body of Shaikh Madir Karim was found in the English Cemetery in Basra. He was the Imam of al-Ashara al-Mubashara Mosque.
The AMS said Shaikh Nadir was arrested by Iraqi intelligence officers from the Interior Ministry on Friday and his body was discovered two hours later in the cemetery.

Al-Zarqawi videotape on website

Meanwhile a videotape posted on an internet website allegedly by al-Qaida in Iraq - purportedly showed how the group planned and carried out the 24 October triple attacks on the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, in which 17 people were killed.

A narrator said the Palestine hotel was occupied "by foreign journalists and security companies" but indicated the Sheraton was the main target because it housed "assassination teams, intelligence groups" and American soldiers, according to an Associated Press report.

The authenticity of the videotape could not be verified.

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