BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq's interim planning minister escaped an assassination attempt Wednesday after gunmen opened fire on his convoy in the capital, police said.
Mahdi al-Hafidh survived the attack, but one of his bodyguards was killed and two others were wounded, the police said on condition of anonymity.
A woman who answered al-Hafidh's cell phone and refused to be identified confirmed he had survived. "Thank God, he's OK. He's fine," she said.
The attack occurred in the upscale western Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour.
Insurgents have repeatedly targeted top Iraqi officials and civil servants, who are viewed as collaborators of U.S. forces.
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