Car bomb blast kills 7 in Baghdad

The blast, which occurred near a cinema, sent a huge plume of black smoke into the sky. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw rescue workers carrying bloodied bodies away on stretchers.

A police officer with the Interior Ministry said on condition of anonymity that at least seven people were killed and 16 wounded by a suicide car bomb that exploded just as a US military convoy of Humvees and armoured vehicles was passing.

The US military confirmed a car bomb attack in the area but provided no other details.

Firefighters and ambulances raced to the scene, where at least five heavily damaged vehicles were burning in al-Nasr Square, a main intersection of shops, offices and apartment buildings, the AP reporter said.

Earlier three US marines were killed in fighting in western Iraq near the Syrian border on Sunday and Monday, the US military said Monday.

"One marine was killed on May 9 by enemy fire by light arms near Al-Qaim", in the restive Sunni province of Al-Anbar, the army said in the statement.