One of the cars gutted by the blast

BAGHDAD, June 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A car bomber blew himself up on a busy Baghdad street early Monday, June 14, as a convoy of civilian vehicles from the U.S.-led occupation drove past, killing at least 12 people, including five foreigners, and wounding up to 50 others.

"The coalition told us that two British, one American, one French and one Filipino national were among the dead," a diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Their bodies have been taken to a morgue at Baghdad airport," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity, adding that the five contractors had been working for the U.S. company General Electric.

Three other foreigners were wounded, said Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, adding that the foreigners had been helping to rebuild Iraq's battered electricity sector.

In addition, at least seven Iraqis were killed and some 50 wounded in the bombing, according to a tally by three local hospitals.

The blast, which echoed across Baghdad and sent a cloud of thick black smoke into the air, was in a busy commercial area crowded with morning rush-hour traffic, reported Reuters news agency.

Policeman Hassan Al-Mali said the bomber's car had been driving along the street when it exploded.

Locals raced to the area and tried to pull people from the rubble of a nearby damaged building, which had its front torn off.

An injured man is carried from the rubble of a damaged building

Dozens of people gathered around two of the vehicles damaged in the blast, hammering on them, waving debris and jumping on their roofs, chanting: "America is the enemy of God," Reuters reported.

Some witnesses said they saw foreign casualties being pulled from the vehicles after the blast.

A third car had been blown off the road and was gutted.

The blast came hard on the heels of a deadly one that rocked the Iraqi capital Sunday, June 13, and killed 16 Iraqis.

The U.S.-led occupation’s headquarters in Baghdad also came under a rocket attack Sunday.

Also on Sunday, a senior education ministry official was gunned down, the second assassination of an Iraqi official in as many days.

On Saturday, June 12, gunmen killed Bassam Kubba, the foreign ministry's undersecretary for multinational affairs and international organizations.

He was shot as he drove to work from his home in Baghdad's Adhamiya district and breathed his last after being rushed to hospital.

It was the first assassination of a top official since the new caretaker government was installed on June 1.