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Baghdad bomb blasts on eve of Saddam trial

A series of bomb blasts rocked Baghdad on Monday as insurgents targeted a police checkpoint near the government compound, killing at least two people, fired mortar bombs into a park and attacked a U.S. patrol.

The attacks took place the day before the trial of Saddam Hussein was due to resume and as political parties prepared for talks on forming a coalition government the United States hopes will undermine support for a Sunni Arab insurgency.

The court trying Saddam named a new chief judge on Monday after the original presiding judge resigned and his replacement was accused of being a supporter of the former Iraqi president.

Despite increased security throughout Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck a checkpoint into the Green Zone, close to the Iranian embassy, which staff said was not damaged in the blast. Television pictures showed a burnt-out police vehicle still smoldering and the twisted, blackened wreckage of the bomber's car. A foot lay among the blast debris scattered in the street.

Police said two people were killed and six wounded -- three civilians and three policemen.

Minutes later a roadside bomb exploded in the al-Waziriya area, wounding two people. Several mortar bombs fell short of the Green Zone into a park that also houses Baghdad Zoo and an amusement park. Police said no one was injured.

A car bomb blast hit a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in southern Baghdad, wounding two civilians, police said.

Iraq's Interior Ministry said a security clampdown in the capital was still in force amid fears that Sunni Arab rebels, angered by the results of a December 15 election that confirmed the dominance of Shi'ite Islamists, would launch more attacks.

"We are expecting a rise in attacks by gunmen because of the results of the election," a ministry official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.