IRAQ'S first lady escaped unharmed from a bomb attack that hit her motorcade and injured four bodyguards in central Baghdad yesterday.
President Jalal Talabani's wife, Hiro Ibrahim Ahmed, was in the Karrada district of Baghdad on the way to the National Theatre to attend a cultural festival when her motorcade was hit, the president's office said. It was unclear whether she was the
target or it was a random attack.
The bombing comes against a background of increased violence in the Iraqi capital as government forces, backed by US firepower, battle Mahdi Army militiamen loyal to the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the city's Sadr City slums.
Yesterday US troops killed nine al-Qaeda insurgents, including three who were wearing suicide vests, in a clash near Lake Thar Thar in the predominantly Sunni Salahuddin province north-west of Baghdad, the military said. Some 18 militants were also killed in clashes in Sadr City, Shula and New Baghdad.
Iraqi health officials said at least ten people, including two children, were killed within 24 hours in Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people.
Moqtada al-Sadr himself is believed to be living in Iran.
Iraq is seeking to increase pressure on Iran, which has been accused by the US of financing and training Shiite militants in Iraq and of funnelling weapons into the country. Iranian officials have denied the allegations.
A five-member Iraqi delegation returned on Saturday from Tehran after holding meetings on the issue.
Iran's Fars news agency reported that Iranian negotiators told their Iraqi counterparts that as long as the US attacked the Mahdi Army in Sadr City, Iran would not restart security talks with the Americans.
Rear-Admiral Patrick Driscoll, a US military spokesman, said Iranian involvement in Iraq was mostly an "issue between the government of Iraq, a sovereign nation, and Iran to discuss and seek resolution".
Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, said Iraq was "seizing every opportunity to establish good relations with Iran" but that any security crackdown was an internal affair.
"No other party, except the Iraqis, has anything to do with this issue," he said.
US and Iraqi forces have been battling militia for weeks as part of an Iraqi government crackdown. The clashes have caused deep rifts among Iraq's Shiite majority and have pulled US troops into difficult urban combat situations.
Mr Dabbagh said the government had been largely unable to implement a $100 million project to rebuild Sadr City because of a lack of security. The poor neighbourhood badly needs rebuilding of its sewerage, water and electricity networks.
"We continue to target special groups that are causing the majority of violence," Rear-Admiral Driscoll said, referring to fighters allegedly backed by Iran.
Militias have been blamed for firing hundreds of rockets or mortars from Sadr City into the Green Zone, the US-protected area housing the American and British embassies and much of the Iraqi government.
The attacks come amid heightened worries that al-Qaeda in Iraq is regrouping.
The terrorist network announced on 19 April that it was launching a one-month offensive against US troops and US-allied Sunnis.
The full article contains 533 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
