Iraqi minister unhurt by bomb

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Finance Minister Rafie alEsawi, a prominent Sunni politician, escaped unharmed when a roadside bomb exploded near his car and wounded two of his security guards, his office and a health official said on Monday.

Esawi is one of the leaders of the Sunni-supported, crosssectarian Iraqiya political bloc, ensnared in a crisis triggered when Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-maliki sought the arrest of a Sunni vice president and the ouster of his own deputy, another prominent Sunni, last month.

The crisis threatens Iraq’s fragile power-sharing government, a fractious alliance of Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions that has made little headway on legislation since it was formed a year ago.

Esawi was in a convoy of vehicles heading to Baghdad on Sunday when a bomb exploded in the town of Ishaqi, 100 kilometers north of the capital, said Zaid Mohammed, the finance ministry’s media manager.

“It was a roadside bomb placed on the main road targeting the convoy of Doctor Rafie in al-ishaqi town yesterday evening,” Mohammed told Reuters.

Esawi had attended a funeral in Salahuddin province, he said.

Two local police officers denied that there had been any such attack. But a local health official confirmed two of Esawi’s guards had been hurt in a bombing.

“We received two wounded security guards of Rafie alEsawi. We did the medically required procedures and took shrapnel from their bodies,” said Jasim al-dulaimi, the head of the health operations center in Salahuddin province.

The latest political crisis erupted shortly after the last US troops rolled out of Iraq on December 18.