WORLD> Middle East
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US ambassador to Iraq unhurt by convoy bomb
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-13 19:20
BAGHDAD: US ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill was unhurt when a roadside bomb blasted his convoy in the south of the country, USA Today reported on Monday. The American daily said its reporter was a few minutes behind Hill in a separate convoy on Sunday when the bomb struck in Nassiriya, 300 km (185 miles) southeast of Baghdad. No one was hurt in the bombing, it said.
The US embassy could not be immediately reached. Despite a sharp drop in violence across Iraq in the past 18 months, militants are still able to carry out frequent bomb attacks. US forces withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of last month, raising doubts about whether Iraq's own fledgling forces are up to the job of keeping the country safe.
Largely Shi'ite southern Iraq has been mostly quiet since Iraqi forces launched a crackdown on militants loyal to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr last year. The US military usually blames the sporadic attacks that do happen there on militias with links to Iran, a charge Tehran denies. |