Baghdad official escapes assassination amid attacks

The head of Baghdad provincial council escaped assassination when a car bomb hit his convoy today, part of a wave of nationwide violence that left eight people dead.

The attacks were the latest in a surge in unrest in recent months that has sparked concern Iraq is slipping back into the all-out sectarian bloodshed that plagued the country in 2006 and 2007.

The car bomb against the convoy of Riyadh al-Adhadh, the chief of the provincial council and a Sunni lawmaker belonging to the party of the national parliament speaker, killed two people and wounded four others, according to police and a medical source.
 

Adhadh was unharmed but one of his bodyguards was killed in the bombing, which struck in the Waziriyah neighbourhood of north Baghdad.

Attacks south of Baghdad -- in Karbala, Nasiriyah, Hilla and Hafriyah -- as well as the predominantly Sunni cities of Abu Ghraib and Mosul left six others dead.