Blast hits Iraqi minister's convoy

23/10/2008| IslamWeb

A suicide car bomber has struck the convoy of Iraq's minister of labor, killing 10 people and wounding 20 others, police say.

 

A spokesman said the minister, Mahmoud al-Sheikh Radhi, was unhurt.

 

Three of his bodyguards were among the dead in Thursday's attack.

 

A Reuters television cameraman in the vicinity filmed the blast but an Iraqi soldier confiscated his videotape.

 

The cameraman, about 150 meters away at the time of the explosion, saw a car drive into a convoy of six or seven 4WD vehicles and explode near Tahrir square in central Baghdad.

 

Police and bodyguards in the convoy opened fire after the blast. Several vehicles crashed and others sped away.

 

Violence across Iraq has fallen over the past year to four-year lows, but fighters are still able to carry out frequent car bomb and suicide bomb attacks.

 

Suicide bombings are a signature tactic of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

 

In other news, Iraqi forces took control of the central province of Babil, the 12th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over by US troops to Baghdad.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

Iraq map

 

Al-Jazeera