At least 12 people were killed and more than 80 were wounded today during a series of bomb attacks in a Baghdad shopping district, which officials said were intended to target the convoy of an Iraqi government minister.

Just before noon, two roadside bombs exploded in front of a convoy belonging to the Ministry of Industry, but Fawzi al-Hariri, the Minister of Industry, told The Times he was not in the vehicle at the time and it was his deputy who had been present.

Three of the ministry’s bodyguards were among those killed and 15 policemen were also wounded.

The attacks, which occurred in Camp Sarah, a Christian neighbourhood in the capital’s city centre, were followed moments later by a massive car bomb outside a nearly market complex.

Corpses were seen scattered in the streets next to the smoking wreckage as people frantically placed the wounded in their cars to take them to hospital before ambulances arrived at the scene.

A woman sat weeping over the crumpled body of her son, refusing to allow police or rescue workers to take him away, while officials warned residents to leave the area for fear that more bombs were planned.

Two buildings were severely damaged and dozens of shops destroyed, according to witnesses.

One witness, who identified himself only by his first name, Hamdi, said that a roadside bomb went off and as people started to gather, the second blast occurred.

An increasingly common tactic of insurgents is to first detonate a single bomb to draw rescue workers, police and onlookers, and then to explode another device in order to cause mass casualties.

"Then more people gathered and they were searching for their dead or missing relatives when the car bomb exploded," he said. "Everybody knows this is a Christian neighbourhood; they are neither Sunnis or Shiites, so why are they doing this to them?"

Elsewhere, five others were killed in attacks across the country, while the US military announced the death of two soldiers – the latest fatalities in what has been one of the bloodiest spells for American troops this year. One of the soldiers was killed by enemy fire near the northern city of Kirkuk and the other by a sniper in eastern Baghdad, both yesterday.

At least 17 troops have been killed in combat since Saturday, including eight US soldiers who died in gun battles and bomb blasts in Baghdad on Monday -- the worst day for American forces in the capital in a year.

Yesterday alone, at least 53 people were killed across Iraq, a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government announced a new security plan aimed at putting an end to sectarian violence.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Democratic politicians are criticising their Republican counterparts for including a $20 million provision for victory celebrations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the latest US defence budget.

The funds for "commemoration of success" went unspent last year and are believed to have been included in the budget by Republican Senators. "If the Bush Administration is planning victory celebrations, Americans deserve to know what their plan is to get us to a victory in Iraq," said a spokeswoman for Senator Harry Reid, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate.

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