Iraqi Oil Ministry official gunned down
Aide to top Shiite cleric also slain
 |  Mourners carry the coffin of Iraqi police Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Khamas, who was slain by gunmen Wednesday. |
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|  VIDEO |
 CNN's Nic Robertson looks at the life of one of the world's most wanted men.
 Military officials: Al-Zarqawi ordered insurgents to use more car bombs.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An official from Iraq's Oil Ministry was gunned down Thursday morning in western Baghdad, police said.
Gunmen killed Dr. Ali Hameed about 8 a.m. (midnight EDT), police said.
Also Thursday, Sayid Mohammed Al-Allaf -- an aide to Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani -- was gunned down in northeastern Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, Iraqi police said.
And In Baquba on Thursday, two Iraqi police were killed and two others wounded -- a police officer and a civilian -- when a roadside bomb detonated near a police convoy in front of the Diyala University Medicine School, police said.
Meanwhile, an audio file thought to be from the most-wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, says religious doctrine justifies the killing of innocent Muslims by insurgents. (Full story)
More than 400 Iraqis have been killed during the three weeks since the formation of Iraq's new transitional government, and insurgents, who once favored roadside bombs, are using more car-borne devices.
In May there have been 21 car bombings, mostly suicide attacks, in Baghdad and nearby. By contrast last year in the same area, fewer than half the attacks were car bombings.
In one recent car bombing investigators found a foot duct-taped to the accelerator pedal.
Intelligence suggests some drivers were unaware their cars were loaded with explosives when they were remotely detonated.
The military also theorizes some drivers have been forced at gunpoint into car bombings or that the drivers' families have been threatened with kidnapping.
In its quest to quell the spate of bombings, the U.S. military hunted for insurgents near Syrian border towns on the Euphrates River last week. The military estimated that more than 125 insurgents were killed and 39 other suspected fighters were captured.
Nine U.S. Marines died in the fighting, the military said.
Several of people identified as al-Zarqawi aides have been captured in the past month, including a man named Ammar al-Zubaydi (also known as Abu Abbas).
The military said last week al-Zubaydi was responsible for a string of car bombs in the Baghdad area on April 29. On that day, 12 explosions were reported in eight areas of the capital within a matter of hours.
The Associated Press reported that al-Zarqawi's group also released a statement claiming responsibility for Wednesday's drive-by killing of police Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Khamas in Baghdad.
CNN's Enes Dulami contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
