Two Iraqi policemen were killed and 20 people were wounded when a suicide bomber in a car attacked a barracks in the southern city of Nassiriya this morning.
The wounded included soldiers and civilians.
Nassiriya, a mostly Shi'ite city 375km south of Baghdad, has been relatively free of the attacks plaguing central Iraq.
Sunni Arab insurgents are waging a campaign of suicide and car bombings and shootings that have killed thousands of police officers, soldiers and civilians in an effort to undermine the Shi'ite-led government.
Italian soldier wounded in attack
Meanwhile and separately, an Italian soldier was slightly wounded in southern Iraq early today when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol.
The soldier was travelling in the last of the three patrol vehicles, which was damaged in the attack. The incident happened outside Nasiriyah, the site of the Italian military base in Iraq.
Italy has the fourth-largest contingent in the US-led coalition, after the United States, Britain and South Korea.
Defence Minister Antonio Martino said this month that the force, currently numbering some 2,600, would be withdrawn by the end of the year.
Howard denies knowledge of AWB deal
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has denied knowing about bribes paid by the country's wheat exporter, AWB, to Saddam Hussein's Iraq under the UN's corruption-tainted oil-for-food programme.
Mr Howard said: 'We were in no way involved with the payment of bribes. We didn't condone them, we didn't have knowledge of them, but we did work closely with AWB.'
'I make no bones about that. I had no reason to believe that AWB Ltd wasn't just going all out to preserve Australia's wheat sales to Iraq.'
