Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The U.S. military displayed weapons that it says were made in Iran.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's Shiite vice president narrowly escaped assassination Monday as a blast ripped through a government meeting hall just hours after it was searched by U.S. teams with bomb-sniffing dogs. At least 10 people were killed.
Adel Abdul-Mahdi was slightly wounded in the explosion, which splintered chairs, destroyed a speakers' podium and sent a chilling message that suspected Sunni militants can strike anywhere despite a major security crackdown across Baghdad.
As U.S. forces sealed off the area around the municipal building, investigators grappled with the troubling question of how the bomb was smuggled into the ministry of public works -- a seven-story structure with crack surveillance systems from its days as offices for Saddam Hussein's feared intelligence service.
The bomb -- possibly hidden in the podium -- went off moments after the minister for public works finished a speech in the third-floor chamber, witnesses said. Abdul-Mahdi had made a welcoming address a few minutes earlier, raising speculation the bomb could have been on a timer-trigger that missed the vice president by sheer luck.
Among those killed were several ministry employees, police said. More than 25 were wounded, including the public works minister, Riyad Gharib.
Abdul-Mahdi -- smothered by his bodyguards in an instant -- suffered minor leg injuries and was hospitalized for tests, his office said. He was later released.
"I heard a big explosion," said Tagrid Ali, a public works ministry employee who attended the gathering to honor outstanding workers. "I fell to the ground, and the whole place was filled with black smoke."
Suspicion for the attack fell on Sunni insurgents, who have waged nonstop bombings and attacks against Iraq's majority Shiites for cooperating with the U.S.-backed government.
Made in Iran
Elsewhere, the U.S. military displayed a large cache of weapons and parts for sophisticated roadside bombs found last week at an arms factory in a mostly Shiite village northeast of Baghdad.
Among the arsenal were mortars and rockets the military said were made in Iran, which Washington accuses of funneling weapons and aid to Shiite militias. The suspected shipments include parts for so-called EFPs -- explosively formed projectiles that fire a slug of molten metal that can penetrate armored vehicles.
Capt. Clayton Combs called the discovery of a weapons-making hideout an important break.
"This is a significant amount," he said during a news conference in Baghdad. "Before we have found one or two EFPs at the most, and those are usually at the site of deployment. This is the first cache ... that has actually been found as far as a production facility."
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