One policeman was killed and 13 people were injured when a suicide car bomb exploded in the Palestine Street district of Baghdad today.
The explosion came as policemen from the nearby Zayuna Station were setting up a checkpoint.
Aid agency pulls out
Earlier, another aid agency announced that it was pulling out of Iraq because of the danger posed to its workers there.
The decision by the Australian organisation, World Vision, leaves only a handful of international humanitarian agencies in Iraq.
It follows the recent departure of CARE International and the French organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières.
World Vision said its decision was influenced by the murder in September of its own head of operations in Iraq, Mohammed Hushiar, and the recent abduction and probable murder of the Irish-born CARE worker, Margaret Hassan.
The agency was based in the northern city of Mosul and employed about 60 Iraqi staff.
Reports of beheadings
In a separate development, there are unconfirmed reports that the Iraqi group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has beheaded two Iraqi National Guard policemen in Mosul.
Mr Zarqawi's group is responsible for many other killings, including that of the British engineer Ken Bigley.
According to an Islamist website, the two policemen were slaughtered in front of a large group of people.
The claim was made by the al-Qaeda Organisation of Holy War in Iraq.
