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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Zarqawi sez he tried to whack the finance minister |
| 2004-07-18 |
| Iraq's justice minister has escaped unscathed but five bodyguards have been killed after a suicide car bomber drove into his convoy in an attack claimed by a group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Statements posted on an Islamist Web site said the attack was one of two carried out on Saturday by the military wing of Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, blamed by Washington for a series of deadly suicide bombings in Iraq and for executing at least three hostages. Witnesses said the attacker drove towards the convoy close to the home of Justice Minister Malik al-Hassan and detonated his car bomb in a ball of flame. "There was a blast alongside the convoy. A booby-trapped car came alongside and blew up," said traffic policeman Hussein Abed. The Health Ministry said five bodyguards were killed. Five gutted cars were littered across the road, and Iraqis collected human remains scattered among the wreckage. "What I want to highlight is that this is clearly a terrorist attack by people who do not want to see this country move forward," U.S. Colonel Michael Formica of the 1st Cavalry Division said at the scene. Abdul Nasser Mohammed, one of the surviving bodyguards, pointed at one of the cars destroyed in the blast and said: "Two people were killed in this car and all we found was body parts." Hospital officials said at least eight people were wounded. "We were working as painters near the ministry house when suddenly there was an explosion," one of the injured, Khalid Waleed, said from his hospital bed. "The glass shattered everywhere, hitting us." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |