Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi survived an assassination attempt in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad on Monday. At least 10 members of the Iraqi military were killed in the attack. According to a spokesman for the interior ministry, the convoy was shot at by four attackers from a parked car as it passed by on its way to the Green Zone, an area that houses Iraq’s government and some foreign embassies. The spokesman also said five Iraqi soldiers and four officers were wounded in the attack.
Abadi’s office tweeted that he was unharmed and there was no word yet on who may have carried out the attack. A number of lawmakers said they saw a Shiite militiaman in a militia uniform or a motorcycle with an extended barrel drive away from the scene of the attack. The incident occurred just four days after a suicide car bombing in Baghdad that killed more than a dozen police officers, and during an intense period in which numerous attacks against the Iraqi government have been reported.
Over the weekend, the government enacted a set of new security measures in Baghdad, including heightened security in the capital and a ban on motorized vehicles, amid fears that an attack against a military convoy was imminent.
Read the full story at The New York Times.
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