A car bomb has exploded outside the Iraqi national guard headquarters in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least 23 people and wounding many others. The blast tore through a crowd waiting to apply for jobs in the force on Saturday, said National Guard General Anwar Muhammad Amin. The attack wounded 53 people, some of whom are in critical condition, the doctors at Kirkuk hospital said. The bomber detonated his car at the rear entrance of the National Guard headquarters in a residential area of the city. The street outside the national guard building was littered with bloodied bodies, debris and shards of glass. Saturday's attack was the third car bombing against Iraq's beleaguered police forces this week. On Friday, an attacker rammed an explosives-packed vehicle into a row of police cars in the capital, killing at least three, days after a car bomb near a Baghdad police station left at least 44 dead. **Baquba blast*** Meanwhile, in Baquba, north of Baghdad, nine people have been wounded after a mortar shell struck a crowd of students and parents awaiting exam results in front of a school. "A mortar shell exploded near the secretary's office, wounding several people," said local police chief General Walid Khalid Abd Al-Salam on Saturday. Hospital officials said nine people had been brought in with shrapnel wounds. The city, north of Baghdad, has seen several attacks against Iraqi security forces and US troops. On 14 September, 12 Iraqi policemen and their driver were killed in Baquba when gunmen sprayed their vehicle with bullets. **Baghdad bomb*** Earlier in Baghdad, on Saturday, a roadside bomb exploded in a small sidestreet in the city centre, killing one man and seriously wounding two in a passing car, police and witnesses said. Residents identified the three men as Iraqis who worked as security guards at the nearby al-Sadir Hotel, a heavily fortified complex where US civilian contractors and other Westerners involved in Iraq's reconstruction effort are known to live and work. The three men were wearing uniforms, body armor and carrying assault rifles, according to the witnesses. Meanwhile, west of Baghdad, residents found the body of Anbar province's deputy governor, who was kidnapped earlier this month, hospital officials said Saturday. Bassim Muhammad's body was found on Friday evening near Ramadi General Hospital, said Dr Abd al-Munim Aftan, the facility's director. Also close to Baghdad, three Iraqi children have been seriously injured after US forces opened fire at them. They were throwing stones at the soldiers in Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad on Saturday. **Basra clashes*** In Basra, a member of al-Mahdi Army has been killed during clashes with British forces in al-Twaisa area. A British soldier was seriously injured after al-Mahdi Army fighters opened fire at a patrol in the city, Captain Hisham Halawi, a spokesman for the British forces, told Aljazeera. In the southern city of Mosul, an explosive device detonated as a US military patrol passed through the area. One military vehicle was damaged, Aljazeera has learnt. **Murder attempt*** And a senior official with Iraq's state-run North Oil Company has survived an attempt on his life when his convoy came under attack in the northeastern city of Mosul on Saturday, police said. Muhammad Zibari, the head of the company's oil products department in the Nineveh province, was travelling in a three-vehicle convoy on his way to work in Mosul when unidentified gunmen opened fire, killing five of his bodyguards and wounding four others, said police Lieutenant Muhammad Ali. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A security officer looks over the wreckage of a car which was destroyed by a roadside bomb in central Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2004. (AP)