BAGHDAD, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Seven Iraqis were killed in separate shooting and bombing attacks in the capital Baghdad on Sunday, police sources and witnesses said.

    Gunmen in two cars opened fire at shops in a main market of Baiyaa neighborhood in southern Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing three shopkeepers and wounding a pedestrian, a well-informed police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Ahmad Sami, a witness at the scene also told Xinhua that, "Gunmen in a BMW and an Opel cars showered the shops with bullets at about 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT), killing three Sunni shopkeepers and wounding a passing young man".

    Many shops in the area closed their doors after the attack, he added.

    Earlier, gunmen opened fire at the convoy of Habib Abdul Hussein al-Shemmary, a director general in the Education Ministry, in Zaiyouna neighborhood in eastern Baghdad.

    The official escaped unhurt, but two of his bodyguards were killed, local police said.

    In a separate incident, a roadside bomb missed passing police patrols on a highway near Baghdad's University of Technology in eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding another.