Guerrillas killed eight people in Iraq on Monday including a senior Interior Ministry official gunned down near his home, and two Jordanian drivers became the latest foreigners seized in a spiralling hostage crisis.

But an Egyptian diplomat abducted last week said his captors had freed him and he was safe at Egypt's embassy in Baghdad.

A surge in attacks, including two car bombings, marked a fresh security challenge to Iraq's new interim government before a major political gathering expected this week.

The U.S. military said a suicide car bomb exploded outside an American base near the northern city of Mosul, killing an Iraqi woman, her child and an Iraqi guard.

In Baghdad, gunmen shot Mussab al-Awadi, a top official in charge of tribal affairs, as he left his house, an Interior Ministry source said. Two bodyguards were also killed.

Gunmen also opened fire on five women cleaners for U.S. firm Bechtel in the southern city of Basra, killing two, one of the survivors said. The women were waiting for a bus to take them to work when they were attacked.

"I pretended to be dead so they didn't shoot me. I was covered in the blood of my friends," said an emotional Montaha Khalil, who was unhurt.

Source: CD/Agencies