Iraqi vice president survives bomb blast during speech

IRAQ’S Shi’ite vice president escaped an apparent assassination attempt yesterday after a bomb exploded in municipal offices where he was making a speech, knocking him down with the force of the blast that left at least 10 people dead.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi was bruised and hospitalised for medical exams. Police initially blamed the attack on a bomb-rigged car, but later said the explosives were planted inside the building.

The attack sent another message that suspected Sunni militants could strike anywhere despite a major security crackdown across the capital. Hours before the blast, US military teams with bomb-sniffing dogs combed the building.

The bomb struck while Abdul-Mahdi was addressing municipal officials in the upscale Mansour district, which has many embassies and saw a rise in private security patrols after past kidnappings blamed on militants.

Abdul-Mahdi is one of two vice presidents. The other, Tariq al-Hashemi, is Sunni.

A public works employee, Tagrid Ali, said he was listening to the speech. “Then I heard a big explosion,” he said. “I fell to the ground and whole place was filled with black smoke.”

Iraqi and US soldiers cordoned off the area and bomb-detection teams combed the building.

Separately, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was in stable condition in hospital in Jordan, yesterday, recuperating from exhaustion and lung inflammation.

Talabani, 73, fell ill on Sunday and was unconscious when he was rushed to a hospital in Iraq.