2 Iraqi Officials Escape Assassination Attempts

Two Iraqi officials narrowly escaped assassination attempts Saturday, including a deputy interior minister whose home was devastated by a car bomb that killed five of his guards and a neighbor.

Abdul-Jabbar Youssef Sheikli, who was appointed to his Interior Ministry post less than two months ago, and his wife suffered cuts and other minor injuries in the 7:50 a.m. attack. As many as 10 others also were wounded in the attack on one of the top officials of the department responsible for police and security in Iraq.

To the north in Baqubah, the dean of Diyala University, Khosham Atta, escaped harm when gunmen shot at his car as he was going to work, the university said.

The violence, part of a resurgence in attacks against Iraqi government officials and other public figures, came less than six weeks before the U.S. is scheduled to hand over control of Iraq to an interim government.

Last week, Ezzedine Salim, president of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, was assassinated by a car bomb as he was about to enter the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad.

“It’s a long-standing pattern of intimidation on the part of terrorists trying to demonstrate to this country that they have the capability to derail the process toward sovereignty,” Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said Saturday.

Neighbors said the car bomb exploded outside Sheikli’s home in eastern Baghdad as he was preparing to leave for work. Sheikli is in charge of administration of the Interior Ministry.

The blast destroyed 22 cars around the home and sent twisted pieces of the attacker’s vehicle into a nearby palm tree. A charred swing set and lawn furniture smoldered in the front yard as investigators searched for clues. Pools of blood, oil and gasoline stained the driveway, garage and kitchen.

“His job is to fight crime and now crime is fighting back,” Interior Minister Samir Shakir Mahmoud said as he surveyed the damage. “This is a war.”

A group led by suspected Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attack in a website posting.

“Your brothers in the Jamaat al Tawhid and Jihad attacked the treacherous apostate the Deputy Interior Minister General [Abdul-Jabbar] in front of his home as he was preparing to go to his office,” the statement said.

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE --- Interior Minister Samir Shakir Mahmoud is referred to as Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy in later stories. The style clarification was made because he began going by the longer name. --- END NOTE ---