Police sources in Iraq have revealed that a senior US diplomat escaped unhurt when the military convoy in which he was traveling was struck by a suicide car bomber.
A U.S. embassy spokesman confirmed that the diplomat was in the vicinity of the attack but declined to identify him. He added that the diplomat was safe and that the attack did not appear to have targeted him. The spokesman declined to disclose any other details. However, an Interior Ministry spokesman revealed that police had confirmed news that a suicide car bomber had attacked a U.S. military convoy.
This attack took place in the west of Baghdad at around 2 p.m. local time (1000 GMT). The spokesman added that two civilians who were nearby were killed and five others were wounded. An Iraqi Islamic Party spokesman also confirmed that as soon as the senior U.S. official had left its compound in western Baghdad, the convoy in which he was traveling was hit by an explosion which shattered windows in the party's headquarters. The Iraqi Islamic Party is a major Sunni Muslim group in the country.
Eyewitnesses said that as soon as the explosion hit the convoy, US soldiers arrived in numbers and cordoned off that area. A U.S. army Humvee caught fire after the blast and witness said that a U.S. helicopter had arrived to evacuate the wounded, who happened to be three US soldiers. This incident was otherwise a routine one in Baghdad where US convoys are the prime targets of the Sunni minority that once enjoyed power in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) has had a few skirmishes with the U.S. military and Iraq's new Shi'ite-led government ever since it took shape on April 28. The IIP had boycotted an election in January in protest at violence in Sunni dominated areas. Officials on either side are engaged in hectic parleys to convince the IIP to join the negotiations on a new constitution for Iraq. Around two weeks ago, US troops had held IIP leader Mohsen Abdul-Hamid and three sons of his for some hours under suspicion that his house was being used as a hideout and a meeting place for insurgents. The US forces later called this move as a mistake.
