BAGHDAD - Iraq's outgoing planning minister Mahdi al-Hafidh escaped an assassination attempt Wednesday in Baghdad that killed two of his guards and seriously wounded another, an Iraqi official told AFP.
"Yes the minister escaped an attack and he was very sad for the death of his guards and the third is between life and death," undersecretary of culture Maysun al-Damluji said.
The attack happened around 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) near the Saudi embassy in the upscale Mansur area on the capital's west side, she said, adding that the minister escaped unscathed.
The planning minister, a Shiite technocrat, is close to Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi, who served as Iraq's foreign minister in the 1960s before Saddam Hussein came to power.
Hafidh served along with Pachachi in the Governing Council installed by the US-led occupation after Saddam's fall in 2003 and he turned into the country's pointman in dealing with international donors that have pledged over 30 billion dollars for the reconstruction of war-ravaged Iraq.
03/09/2005 17:47 GMT