by Jay Deshmukh
NAJAF, Iraq, Aug 24 (AFP) - Two ministers escaped bombings in Baghdad on Tuesday, as dozens of Iraqi national guardsmen joined a fierce US-led assault against Shiite militia positions in Najaf, strangling hopes of imminent peace in the holy city.
Five people were killed and six wounded when a suicide bomber blew up a car in the path of Environment Minister Mishkat al-Moumin and a roadside bomb exploded by the convoy of Education Minister Sami al-Mudhaffar, aides said.
Four of Moumin's bodyguards were killed when a driver tried to smash a car packed with explosives into her vehicle, as she left a highly fortified zone where many Iraqi ministers live in Qadisiya, bodyguard Shamil Kamel said.
Three passers-by were wounded, said medical sources. Kamel said another bodyguard was also hurt in the attack.
Four cars were completely burnt out, with shattered glass and chunks of shrapnel strewn on the road in the residential area, said an AFP photographer.
Just 30 minutes later, a roadside bomb blew up as Mudhaffar drove past in the western Al-Khudra district, killing one guard and wounding two others, his office told AFP.
Assassination attemps against Iraqi ministers are frequent, despite stringent security precautions taken by leading officials.
Last month, Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hasan escaped a suicide attack on his motorcade claimed by Al-Qaeda-linked militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and deputy foreign minister Bassam Kubba was shot dead in June.
Meanwhile, on the 20th day of fighting in Najaf, heavy machine-gun and tank fire pummelled the Old City in the streets around the revered Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest Shiite Muslim mosques in the world.
Humvees and US tanks crawled through the bombed-out streets, just 200 metres (yards), as dozens of Iraqi national guardsmen were deployed in the area for the first time.
Coming under a blizzard of gunfire, the guardsmen, helmeted and wearing body armour, shot back at Mehdi Army fighters as they advanced down Medina Street, which runs parallel to the Imam Ali mausoleum.
Overnight, intense air raids had struck streets leading to the shrine and flames were seen shooting into the sky near the golden-domed mausoleum.
The US military said close air support was used on "positions south of the Imam Ali shrine, from which forces were taking hostile fire," accusing Sadr's forces of using holy sites as bases for their operation.
Serious damage to the mausoleum could inflame the already tense standoff, as hopes that a deal struck on Friday for the fighters to leave the site evaporate with every new day of violence.
A hole one metre (more than three feet) across was already punched into the outer wall of the shrine compound on Sunday night, scattering debris across the marble floor.
Sadr supporters said it had been caused by a missile fired by a US helicopter, which the US military denied.
"The fire was not directed at the shrine, nor did it strike the wall or any other of the other holy sites," a US spokeswoman said.
Despite announcing four days ago they would hand over control of the shrine to representatives of Shiite Islam's most revered cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Sadr's aides have since said the agreement is in limbo.
In Baghdad, a US soldier was killed Monday, bringing to at least 716 the number US troops killed in action in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Meanwhile, two soldiers accused in the Iraq prison abuse scandal were to go before a military judge in Germany later Tuesday in a pre-trial hearing aimed at preparing for a trial by court martial.
Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, a suspected ring-leader of the abuses, is to plead guilty to some charges of abuse, the Washington Post reported.
He and Sergeant Javal Davis are charged with cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty and assault over the humiliation of inmates last year at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
The scandal has embarrassed Washington and while it has risen through the army hierarchy from the seven military policemen accused to implicating more senior staff, no high-ranking officer or official has lost their job over it.