Baghdad - At least four people were killed and 12 wounded in separate incidents across Iraq, police and media reports said Saturday.

Police told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency that three people were killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device was detonated in Baghdad's Harithiya district in the late hours of Friday.

Sources said that the vehicle was parked on the side of a road leading to Baghdad's Green Zone.

The Green Zone is located in central Baghdad where the British and the US embassies are located as well as several governmental offices and ministries.

In another incident, militants shot dead an Iraqi taxi driver who worked in Baghdad's Baiaa area, security sources told VOI.

Meanwhile police discovered three bodies of members of the same family in the Tahrir area of the city of Baquba, some 60 kilometres north of the capital, sources told VOI.

Sources said the three, who had been shot, were abducted by militants after refusing to follow their orders.

In other developments, police officer Adnan Mahmoud told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa that two potential suicide bombers were driving a vehicle which exploded in the Korneesh area of central Kirkuk.

The explosion injured the two, but police detained them for investigation, Mahmoud said.

A bomb went off on Saturday targeting a US patrol in Bashir village, southern Kirkuk, police sources told dpa. Losses were not immediately known.

Iraqi police sources told dpa that forces detained Saturday four suspected terrorists, including an Egyptian, who have been accused of killing the chief of former President Saddam Hussein's tribe.

Sheikh Ali Nada, the tribal chief, was killed two weeks ago in the city of Tikrit, the homeland of Saddam. (dpa)