Senior Iraqi finance ministry official, two staff killed in roadside blast
(AFP)
1 July 2004
BAGHDAD - A senior finance ministry official and two of his staff were killed and two others wounded in a roadside bombing in the Iraqi capital, hospital officials said.
Ihsan Karim, a financial controler at the ministry, was seriously wounded while his driver and one bodyguard were killed on the spot in the blast as they drove down a main road in Baghdads western Yarmuk district.
Karim later died from his wounds in hospital. Ihsan Karim has passed away, said Dr Ussama Fares at the Shahid Adnan hospital which specialises in neurosurgery.
Seriously injured in the head and foot, he died of a haemorrhage, the doctor explained.
The finance ministry official was deliberately targeted in the attack, said a second bodyguard, Taha Abbas Hussein, 30, who escaped with shrapnel wounds to the leg.
I was sitting with Doctor Ihsan in the back of the car, and another bodyguard and a driver were in the front, Hussein said.
The explosion went off ... killing the driver and bodyguard on the spot, he said, speaking to AFP before Karim died.
The blast occurred at about 8:00 am (0400 GMT), said an AFP photographer in the area at the time.
Why didn't this get press?