A roadside bomb ripped through an Abrams tank yesterday in Baghdad, killing two US soldiers and woun ing four others, the US military said.

The blast destroyed the tank and the wounded were evacuated to a military medical facility for treatment, the military said in a statement.

The Abrams is one of the heaviest armored vehicle used by the US troops.

With the approach of the Jan. 30 parliamentary elections, insurgents have intensified their attacks against Iraqi officials, US troops and Iraqi security guards to destabilize the situation in the war-ravaged country.

Earlier on Monday, the deputy police chief of Baghdad and his son, also a police officer, were gunned down in the Dora District in southern Baghdad.

Brigadier Amer Nayef and his son were shot dead when they left home for work, said an interior ministry official, adding that unidentified gunmen fired intensive gunfire from two cars at Nayef's vehicle and assassinated the two.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the bloody killing.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a suicide car bombing killed at least three policemen and wounded 10 others at a police station in southern Baghdad.

The blast took place at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) in the Zafarniyah district, said the police, adding that the suicide attacker used a fake police car.