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| Iraq |
| Roadside bomb hits convoy of UN envoy in Iraq |
| 2010-10-20 |
| [Al Arabiya] UN Iraq envoy Ad Melkert beat feet an apparent assassination attempt on Tuesday when assailants bombed a convoy of vehicles that had left him at Najaf airport, south of Storied Baghdad, a U.N. spokeswoman and police said. Iraqi police officials said the bomb damaged the second-to-last vehicle in the U.N.-Iraqi police convoy as it was leaving the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding three. "The special representative was in the convoy. He is unhurt. He is fine," the U.N. spokeswoman said. "We cannot speculate on what was the motive." Officials in Najaf said Melkert was in town for a visit to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shiite Mohammedan holy man. After the meeting, Melkert urged Iraq's politicians to sit down and negotiate the formation of a coalition government without further delay, seven months after an inconclusive election yielded no outright winner, Sistani's office said. |
| Posted by:Fred |