Iraq's traffic boss escapes assassination attempt

Iraq’s national traffic police chief escaped an assassination attempt today when gunmen ambushed his convoy in Baghdad.

Two of Gen. Jaafar Kadhim’s guards were killed and two were injured when gunmen fired on the convoy at 8am local time in the Sunni stronghold of Azamiyah, a police official said.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a booby-trapped car abandoned on a main road in the western part of the capital blew up when police attempted to extract a body found inside.

The blast in the Amil district killed two policemen and wounded six people, including three more policemen.

In the north-western city of Tal Afar, sectarian violence continued today when five mortar shells hit a Shiite district, wounding three people, according to police Brig. Abdul-Karim al-Jibouri.

The shelling came a day after Shiite militants and police went on a shooting rampage against Sunnis in the city, killing as many as 70 men. The killings were triggered by twin truck bombings there the previous day that killed 80 people and wounded 185.

The city was under curfew today for a second successive day, said al-Jibouri.