Later, several explosions were heard in central Baghdad. The cause was not clear. The press office of the US-led coalition said it had no information.

The earlier blast hurled two cars onto the front lawn of the official's house, and police fired shots to disperse distraught bystanders who scuffled with them.

Abdul-Jabbar Youssef al-Sheikhli, the deputy minister in charge of security, was slightly injured in the forehead and right arm, said Hassan Hadi, a Health Ministry official. "I expect he will leave the hospital in a short time," Hadi said.

Al-Sheikhli is a member of the Shiite Muslim Dawa party, which lost a prominent member this week in another fatal car bombing. On Monday, the president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Dawa member Izzadine Saleem, was killed along with at least six other people near the headquarters of the US-run coalition in the capital.

Also Saturday, the military said a US soldier was killed and three others were wounded in an attack on their vehicle south of Baghdad, and a Marine died in a non-hostile incident. It said the soldiers' vehicle was "ambushed by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device" in Mahmoudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad. The statement did not say when the attack occurred.

Two of the injured soldiers were evacuated to a combat hospital. The third wounded soldier returned to duty after treatment. All the casualties were from the US Army's 1st Armored Division.