A BOMB near Baquba wounded three children on their way to school and two other civilians yesterday, in an attack which appeared to be aimed at an Iraqi working for the US occupiers.

Insurgents have increasingly attacked people working with the US authorities in Iraq, as well as members of the fledgling Iraqi security forces who they also see as cooperating too closely with the occupiers.

The bomb in Buhriz, a few km (miles) south of Baquba, exploded in front of the home on an Iraqi contractor, shattering windows and badly damaging a car. The contractor was not wounded in the blast.

?Someone saw a child throw a bag of some sort in front of his house. The explosion happened minutes later,? police officer Fadil Mahmud Muhammad said.

?Five people were wounded, including three children, a man and a woman. The house and a car were also damaged.?

At the hospital in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, two girls and a boy lay in a stark ward, bandages on their limbs and heads, faces caked with blood.

They were on their way to school when they were caught in the blast. A man and a woman, relatives of the contractor, were also wounded.

Earlier this month, insurgents in Baquba killed three Iraqis working for a US-funded television and radio station, firing at their car as they headed to work in a minibus. At least five other people were injured in that attack.