Iraq's Minister of Education managed to escape unharmed from a suicide car bomb which targeted him on Wednesday in Baghdad. Three of the minister's bodyguards, however, were injured in the blast.
According to the AP, the patrol of Education Minister Sami Al Mudafar was attacked as it traveled in the center of the Iraqi capital.
Other unsuccessful attempts have been made on Al Mudafar's life in the past.
Also Wednesday, a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad missed a U.S. convoy but killed an Iraqi civilian and injured another, while a second blast injured two Iraqi policemen in northern Baghdad, police said.
Police also found the bodies of three men who had been blindfolded, bound and shot repeatedly in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City, police said, according to the AP.
On Tuesday, an Iraqi leader was targeted by fighters when the head of the Fallujah city council was shot and killed west of Baghdad, according to Reuters.
Kamal Shakir al-Nazal, who also served as the preacher of Fallujah's mosque, was reportedly killed as he was traveling to work in his car.
Military officials also reported on Tuesday that 63 Iraqi fighters had been captured by US and Iraqi troops in the areas of Ramadi, Basra, Tel Afar and Salman Pak.
Wednesday's violence follows a deadly twin bombing in a crowded marketplace on Tuesday in Baghdad in which seven people were killed outside of a compact disc store in the capital's bazaar.
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
