BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber killed at least 10 in a market near Ramadi on Tuesday and a mortar attack on a Shiite district area in southern Baghdad killed at least four people, officials said.

Young Iraqi boys examine a car destroyed in an overnight raid near the house of a close aid of anti-US radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Mohammed al-Tabatabaie, in Kufa, Iraq, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Tuesday, March 27, 2007. [AP]

The suicide car bomber near Ramadi exploded his payload about 1 p.m. in the al-Jazeera district northeast of the provincial capital in an area that was not patrolled by the military, police Col. Tarik Yousif said.

The mortar attack in south Baghdad occurred about 9:45 a.m. in Abu Dasheer, a Shiite enclave in the Sunni-dominated Dora neighborhood. Police said those killed included two children, a woman and a man. It was the second mortar attack on the enclave in three days - three people were killed on Saturday.

The US military said Marine was killed Saturday during combat in Anbar province west of Baghdad but gave no details.

Separately, Kirkuk police 1st. Lt. Marewan Salih said two elderly Chaldean Catholic nuns were stabbed multiple time by two intruders who raided their home Monday night near Kirkuk's Cathedral of the Virgin in Kirkuk. They lived alone and there was no sign of a robbery, Salih said.

Margaret Naoum, 79, was stabbed seven times as she stood in the garden just outside the sisters' home. The attackers then went inside where they found Fawzeiyah Naoum, 85, lying on the sofa, recovering from eye surgery last week. She was stabbed three times.

Chaldean Catholics are an ancient Eastern rite now united with Roman Catholicism. Adherents live mainly in Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq and most speak a dialect of Turkish.

In politics, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani were planning to introduce legislation to allow former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling party - including those in the feared security and paramilitary forces - resume jobs in the government or receive pensions, Iraqi officials said.

Long demanded by the US to appease Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority, the measure would set a three-month challenge period after which ex-Baath party loyalists would be immune from legal punishment for their actions during Saddam's reign.

The draft law, which excludes former regime members already charged with or sought for crimes, also would grant state pensions to many Baathists, even if they were denied posts in the government or military.

The commission currently carrying out the government's so-called "de-Baathfication" policy, issued a highly critical statement Tuesday, indicating the draft law could face trouble in parliament.

"This draft turns a blind eye to the feelings of millions of the victims of Baath Party and pays no heed to their emotions and rights. This will not lead to reconciliation," the statement said.

The reconciliation measure is seen as an effort to short-circuit expected criticism of Iraq's government at an Arab League summit this week. Al-Maliki is said to fear rising support among US-allied Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for an Iraqi national unity government led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a favorite of Washington.

The legislation is being sent to parliament under the names of al-Maliki, a Shiite, and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. Shiites and Kurds make up nearly 80 percent of Iraq's population and both groups were oppressed by Saddam's largely Sunni regime.

A joint statement from al-Maliki and Talibani said the measure had been put to al-Maliki's Cabinet for approval but did not give details of the draft law or say when it would go to the legislature.

In other violence Tuesday suspected Shiite militants broke into a Sunni mosque in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, about 4 a.m. and planted explosives that damaged the gate and a fence, police said.

Clashes broke out about an hour later, leaving four Sunni militants dead and one Shiite militant wounded, police said. Authorities had imposed a vehicle ban on Monday after similar attacks.

The fighting was followed by a mortar attack on a nearby Shiite mosque. The rounds landed in a courtyard and did not damage the mosque, although a pedestrian was wounded.

A Shiite man and his three sons also were wounded when a mortar round struck their house in Haswa, about three miles east of Iskandariyah, police said.

Streets were empty and shops in both towns were shuttered.

It was the fourth day in a row that mosques were targeted and clashes erupted in the religiously mixed area. The violence started on Sunday when suspected Shiite militants attacked a Sunni mosque in Haswa, in apparent retaliation for a suicide truck bombing against a Shiite mosque in the city that killed 11 people on Saturday.

In other attacks Tuesday, a roadside bomb struck Iraqi police on a foot patrol in southeastern Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding two others, and another police officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in eastern Baghdad, police said.

The violence came a day after Khalilzad expressed cautious optimism about Iraq's progress but warned that Americans were growing impatient with the war. He also said Americans are in ongoing talks with insurgent representatives to try to persuade them to turn against al-Qaida.

"In my view, though difficult challenges lie ahead and there is a long way to go, Iraq is fundamentally headed in the right direction and success is possible," he said, pointing to a nearly 25 percent reduction in violence during a six-week-old security crackdown in Baghdad as well as economic progress.

The US military also announced on Monday the capture of leaders of a car-bombing ring blamed for killing hundreds of Iraqis.

The US command said one of the car-bombers captured last week, Haitham al-Shimari, was suspected in the "planning and execution of the majority of car bombs which have killed hundreds of Iraqi citizens in Sadr City," a Shiite enclave of Baghdad. Another, identified as Haidar al-Jafar, was second-in-command of a cell that killed some 900 Iraqis and wounded almost 2,000, the military said. Three other men believed connected to that cell also were in custody.