Iraqi Parliament’s Speaker Escapes Assassination

Osama al-Nujaifi
Osama al-Nujaifi

A roadside bomb in the city of Mosul has injured two of the guards of speaker of the Iraqi parliament.

The bomb targeted Osama al-Nujaifi, who was in a convoy on Monday, as the bomb went off in the Salam neighbourhood of Mosul.

Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province, where al-Nujaifi’s brother Atheel is governor, is one of Iraq’s most violent areas, with attacks regularly targeting security forces, government officials as well as civilians.

In another blast, at least 21 fighters, including a suicide bomber, died after a car bomb mistakenly went off in a compound housing rebels north of Baghdad, a pro-government armed group leader and a police officer told AFP news agency.

The group were filming a propaganda video of the would-be suicide attacker when a technical glitch set off the car bomb in the Jilam area south of Samarra, according to Majeed Ali, the head of the Sahwa force in the city, and a police officer.

Attacks have largely been concentrated in the capital, Baghdad and Sunni Arab parts of Iraq’s north and west, including the Samarra region.