Roadside bomb targeting Transportation Ministry official kills 2 civilians in Baghdad

Bomb targeting Iraqi official kills 2 civilians

BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb apparently aimed at a senior Transportation Ministry official on Tuesday missed its target and killed two bystanders instead, officials said.

The blast occurred about 8 a.m. in the mainly Sunni area of Dora, a former insurgent stronghold in southern Baghdad.

It struck near a convoy carrying the director-general of the ministry’s private transportation department. The official was unharmed, but police and hospital officials said two people were killed and eight others wounded.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

Senior bureaucrats and other government officials as well as members of Iraq’s security forces have frequently been targeted by insurgents seeking to destabilize the country as U.S. forces prepare for a full withdrawal from Iraq by the end of next year.

The number of attacks have declined sharply in Dora and other Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad since local tribal leaders revolted against al-Qaida in Iraq in late 2006 and 2007. Fears are high, however, that frustration over a political deadlock following the March 7 parliamentary elections could stoke new violence.

There have been a series of high profile bombings in the city since August, killing hundreds of people and raising questions about the preparedness of Iraq’s security forces to take over from the Americans.