A powerful car bomb killed the head of Iraq's governing council near a US checkpoint in central Baghdad on Monday.

Abdel-Zahraa Othman was among four Iraqis killed in the blast, an Iraqi source said.

Abdel-Zahraa was a Shiite and leader of the Islamic Dawa Movement in the southern  city of Basra.

The bomb destroyed three cars waiting in line to enter the coalition headquarters.