Four policemen were killed in the bomb blast
At least four policemen were among up to 12 people killed in a suicide car bomb attack in south-east Baghdad.
An Iraqi police chief said the attack happened as police patrols tried to intercept the suicide bomber near a US military camp.
Earlier, a senior official at Iraq's ministry of education was shot dead outside his home in west Baghdad.
Director of cultural relations Kamal al-Jarrah was the second government official to be killed in as many days.
In a morning of chaos on Sunday, the US-led coalition headquarters in Baghdad was also hit in a suspected rocket attack. There are no reports of casualties.
A US military spokesperson said that, according to initial reports, 12 people were killed by the car bomb that exploded outside a base of the 1st Cavalry Division.
Emergency services had rushed to the scene to deal with the casualties, said the spokesperson.
Police Captain Abdul Razzak Kadhem said the explosion happened after two police cars tried to stop the suicide bomber.
As well as the police cars, eight civilian cars were badly damaged, he said.
Chilling message
A couple of hours earlier, senior government official Kamal Jarrah was ambushed by unknown gunmen outside his home.
The 63-year-old died in hospital shortly after the attack at 0730 local time (0330 GMT).
Kamal Jarrah was assassinated a day after Bassam Qubba
The assassination came a day after interim deputy foreign minister Bassam Qubba was killed as he left for work in the al-Azimiya district.
A few days earlier, deputy health minister Ammar Safar escaped an attempt on his life in the same district while he was on his way to the ministry.
The head of Iraq's border guards, General Hussein Mustapha, says he narrowly escaped an ambush on Saturday as his two-car convoy was shot at on a Baghdad highway.
The BBC's Barnaby Phillips in Baghdad says the message from the gunmen to anyone involved in the interim government is clear and chilling - that they are all targets and their lives are in danger.
Earlier on Sunday, smoke was seen rising above the so-called Green Zone on the west bank of the Tigris River.
An official in the zone said it was a suspected rocket attack.
"There were no reports of injuries. It's still under investigation," the official was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
The headquarters have frequently been attacked by insurgents. Last month, two Britons were killed in a rocket attack outside the heavily-fortified facility.
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