Baghdad Bombing Misses Iraqi Official but Kills 2 Others

BAGHDAD, Nov. 4 -- An improvised bomb exploded Tuesday near the car of an Iraqi official, missing him but killing two people and injuring several others, police said. It was the latest in a series of apparent assassination attempts against Iraqi authorities.

The attack on Ahmed Shyaa al-Barak, head of a government property and claims office, occurred amid bombing and shooting attacks in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul that left nine people dead and dozens injured.

Violence in Iraq has dropped to its lowest level since 2004, but U.S. military officials are apprehensive about a trend in which assailants target politicians, journalists and police. They fear that such attacks could escalate in the run-up to provincial elections expected in January that are seen as crucial to stabilizing the country.

Barak was a member of the 25-person Iraqi Governing Council established by American occupation authorities after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion. The council was disbanded after a U.S.-backed Iraqi government took office the following year.

Barak's current job involves handling land disputes, a major problem in a country where thousands of people have been pushed off their property in ethnic and sectarian feuds.

He said in a phone interview that he was traveling to his office Tuesday afternoon through the middle-class neighborhood of Karrada when a roadside bomb went off near his convoy.

"I was in a bulletproof car, and that's why I wasn't hurt, but two of my guards were wounded. The street was crowded, and I saw civilians hurt," he said. Police said the blast killed at least two people and injured four.

Barak said an Iraqi military official told him that the bomb had been planted the previous night and that he was not the target. "I disagreed with him, because a lot of officials were going through that intersection and the bomb did not go off until I passed," he said.

In the past two weeks, assailants have tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Iraq's labor minister and a senior Oil Ministry official in bomb attacks.

Also on Tuesday, an explosive device also went off under a police commander's car in the Karrada neighborhood, killing him and wounding two other officers, police said.

Two roadside bombs exploded in a market in the Qahira neighborhood in northern Baghdad, killing at least one person and wounding nine, police said.

In eastern Baghdad, an improvised explosive device blew up in a parking garage in the neighborhood of Mashtal, killing at least four people and injuring 17, police said.

Laith Mahdi, 36, an electrician who lives nearby, said the bomb went off near a fruit vendor inside the garage. The explosion "damaged all the vending stands inside the garage and shattered the windows," he said.

A booby-trapped car exploded in another parking garage near Baghdad Technology University in central Baghdad, killing one civilian and injuring five, police said.

Gunmen killed a police officer in the capital and a civilian in the northern city of Mosul, police said.