A suicide bomber detonated a rubbish truck packed with explosives today outside a hotel used by Western contractors, killing himself and at least three others.

Dozens of people were injured in the dawn blast.

The attacker drove the truck into a car park between the Sadeer hotel, which has been repeatedly attacked by gunmen in the past, and the Ministry of Agriculture.

Volleys of automatic weapons fire could be heard before and after the explosion.

Police said a group of insurgents wearing police uniforms first shot dead a guard at the ministry’s gate, allowing the truck to enter a compound the ministry shares with the hotel. Foreign security officials said other security guards in the area then fired on the vehicle, trying to disable it before it exploded.

Casualties were taken to several hospitals in the city.

Officials at al-Kindi hospital said at least three dead and five wounded were taken there. Ibn al-Nafis hospital counted at least 27 wounded.

The massive blast shook buildings in the area and covered a huge swath of sky with acrid black smoke, much of it coming from the flaming wreckage of the truck and several other burning cars. Around 20 vehicles in the parking lot were damaged.

US troops arrived at the blast site afterward, and a few stood with dozens of onlookers at the edge of a debris-strewn crater 10 metres across and two metres deep that was left by the blast.

A pair of US attack helicopters circled overhead and ambulances and red fire trucks rushed to the scene.

A few blocks away, traffic could be seen flowing normally at Firdous Square, the roundabout in central Baghdad where Iraqis toppled a statue of Saddam on April 9, 2003.

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