BAGHDAD - Iraq's Sunni deputy prime minister was wounded Friday in a suicide bombing near the heavily fortified Green Zone. Eight other poeple were killed, including one of his advisers, police said.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie speaks during a press conference with US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns at Baghdad's heavily fortified green zone, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2006, in Iraq. [AP]

The bomber blew himself up as Salam al-Zubaie, one of two deputies to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and other worshippers were leaving a mosque in the courtyard of his house, according to police and a Sunni politician.

Police said a car parked nearby exploded at about the same time.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said al-Zubaie was in a hospital run by the US in the Green Zone but would not comment on his condition.

Ziad al-Ani, a top official of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said al-Zubaie was slightly wounded in his leg and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Police said eight people were killed, including an adviser, and 11 others were wounded, including five of al-Zubaie's bodyguards. The adviser, Mufeed Abdul-Zahra, was wounded in the attack and died later at the hospital.

There were conflicting accounts about the exact timing of the attack. Police said it occurred as worshippers were leaving, while al-Ani said the bomber blew himself up inside the mosque during the traditional weekly prayer service.

Baghdad authorities have imposed a weekly four-hour vehicle ban on Fridays to protect the services from suicide car bombers.

The mosque was built inside the courtyard of al-Zubaie's compound in a residential area behind the Foreign Ministry, but worshippers can access it from the street outside, al-Ani said. The compound is near the Green Zone, which houses the US and British embassies and the Iraqi government headquarters.

The attack came a day after a rocket landed in the Green Zone as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and al-Maliki were holding a joint press conference.