Baghdad bomb was an attempt to kill me, says Iraq's prime minister

 

US vice president Joe Biden talks to Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki (right) in Baghdad two days after the bomb attack. Photograph: EPA

Iraq's prime minister has said a bombing inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone earlier this week was an assassination attempt.

Nouri al-Maliki said that initial intelligence on the bomb that exploded opposite the parliament buildings on Monday suggested he was the target.

But he denied that the explosion signalled a deterioration in security in the area, which is meant to be one of the most secure in Iraq.

"The preliminary intelligence information says that the car was due to enter parliament and stay there and not to explode. It was supposed to explode on the day I entered parliament," he told the Associated Press.

The Baghdad military spokesman, Qassim al-Moussawi, confirmed that Maliki was the target.

He said the driver of the vehicle tried to join a convoy going into the parliament grounds but was turned back by officials at the checkpoint because he lacked proper identification.

The driver then drove to a parking area opposite the parliament entrance, and the vehicle exploded seconds later.

Maliki said the bomb was probably assembled inside the Green Zone and was not very powerful.

Authorities are still trying to identify a body found near the wrecked car to determine whether he was the bomber or a bystander. Two other people were wounded in the blast.

Maliki played down suggestions that the attack, in a compound that also contains other Iraqi government institutions and the US Embassy, was a sign that Iraqi forces would be unable to handle security after US forces withdraw this month.

"I don't think that this says something about the security situation in the country," the prime minister said.

"Such breaches can happen in any country or anywhere. It was a very simple operation. I cannot see in this operation any indication of a security deterioration in Iraq."

He blamed al-Qaida in Iraq and Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party for the violence.

"They are opposing me, the parliament speaker and the parliament and the whole political process, so whomever the victim of their operation will be, it is a victory for them," he said.

Maliki said he had previously told the speaker, Osama al-Nujaifi, that there might be an attempt to kill one of them at the parliament and advised him to exercise caution.

Maliki said Iraqi security forces were still looking for at least four people believed to have played a role in the plot.