BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants ambushed a convoy carrying Iraq's deputy interior minister today, killing a bodyguard and wounding the deputy's son and two other people, an official in the ministry said.

Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Tariq al-Baldawi escaped unhurt after gunmen in two cars opened fire on his convoy in Baghdad's western Adel neighborhood, said the official, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals.

In the northeastern city of Kirkuk, gunmen wounded two members of a police patrol late Monday, police Brig. Sarhad Qader said. On its Web site, the militant group Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed responsibility for machine-gun fire attacks on three Iraqi police cars in Kirkuk Monday evening.

Attackers also placed a bomb in the undercarriage of a doctor's car. The device exploded as the physician entered a store to buy bread, sparing him but wounding two nearby civilians, Qader said.

It was unclear why militants, who have focused attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces and government workers, targeted the doctor.

In Mosul, a suicide car bomber targeting a U.S. convoy blew himself up, killing five civilians and wounding four, officials said.

In Warsaw, Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said the government wants its 1,700 troops to leave Iraq after the authorizing U.N. resolution expires at the end of the year. While Polish officials have indicated their force would leave after the expiration, Szmajdzinski's remarks were the most definitive about when that might happen.

However, Szmajdzinski said the mission could be extended if the Security Council votes a new mandate for next year or if the Iraqi government asked Poland to keep its troops there.