An Iraqi soldier was killed in Baghdad on Thursday in the first attack on the country's security forces since the landmark U.S. military withdrawal from towns and cities nationwide.
"A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol about 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) in Abu Nawas Street in Baghdad," an Interior Ministry official said. "One Iraqi soldier was killed and eight people wounded, including two soldiers."
The official said it was the first attack on Iraq's army or police since they took control of security in urban areas on Wednesday for the first time since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, following the U.S. pullback on June 30.
In the oil hub of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, meanwhile, an army officer named Saddam Hussein was shot dead by gunmen as he was driving to work, a security official said.
"Major Saddam Hussein was killed this morning after being attacked by gunmen who pumped 24 bullets into his body," the official told news agency AFP.
The restive city and its environs has been hit by a number of bloody attacks in recent weeks.
In a third incident on Thursday, two people were killed and 15 wounded in a car bombing near Yusifiya, 25 km south of Baghdad, a second Interior Ministry official said.
On Tuesday, 33 people perished in a car bombing at a popular market and last month 72 people were killed by a suicide bomber in a nearby town, in the deadliest attack this year.
Kirkuk is plagued by tensions among its Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab communities. Many Arabs were settled in the province by executed dictator Saddam Hussein's regime in a deliberate attempt to dilute its historic Kurdish majority.
In the run-up to the U.S. withdrawal, June witnessed the highest death toll in the conflict-hit nation in 11 months, official figures showed on Wednesday.
A total of 437 people, including 372 civilians, were killed in June, according to figures compiled by government ministries, the highest since July 2008.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned last month that insurgents and militias were likely to step up attacks ahead of the handover, in a bid to undermine confidence in Iraqi security forces.
Iraq marked the American pullback on Tuesday with a national holiday, six years after the invasion which toppled Saddam but sparked an insurgency and sectarian bloodshed that left tens of thousands dead.
Iraq's 500,000 police and 250,000 soldiers are now in charge in cities, towns and villages, while most of the 133,000 U.S. troops remaining in the country will be based outside towns and cities.
The Americans will largely play a training and support role ahead of a complete pullout from Iraq ordered by President Barack Obama by the end of 2011.
Four U.S. soldiers died from combat-related injuries on Monday, taking to 4,321 the number of American troops killed since the invasion.