Iraq deputy PM al-Mutlaq survives convoy ambush

An Iraqi deputy prime minister has survived an assassination attempt west of Baghdad, his office says.

Militants dressed as soldiers opened blaze concerning a convoy carrying Saleh al-Mutlaq and auxiliary officials, triggering a shootout.

One security guard was killed and three others hard the withdraw by, a security source told BBC Arabic.

The ferociousness comes three weeks in the by now Iraqis are due to head to polls in parliamentary elections.

Mr Mutlaq's party had been inspecting flood damage after an al Qaeda-united society closed a dam in simple Fallujah.

No bureau has said it carried out the assault. Islamist militants in Iraq have frequently targeted officials in an effort to undermine confidence in the Shia-led running of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

Sunni politician Talal al-Zobaie said he had been accompanying the deputy prime minister, furthermore a Sunni, and several added processing officials regarding a visit to villages in the Abu Ghraib area at the epoch.

After the shootout, the attackers fled the scene, he said.

Both Mr Zobaie and Mr Mutlaq have in the late accretion called upon Iraqi politicians to put aside their ethnic and religious differences and focus upon protecting the nation.

A wave of violence has swept Iraq recently, including this car bombing in Baghdad on Thursday

The elections will go ahead despite the violence, but polls will not be held in part of Anbar province

Also upon Friday, a roadside bomb struck a minibus outdoor the northern city of Mosul, killing one civilian and wounding six.

Iraq has been enduring the worst unrest previously it pulled assistance from the brink of civil act in 2008.

The election at the decrease of April will be the first since the US pulled out exploit troops in 2011.

More than 9,000 candidates will compete for 328 parliamentary seats, but there will be no voting in parts of Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where security forces yet scuffle Islamist and tribal militants for control of the provincial capital Ramadi and re Fallujah.