BAGHDAD — Two prominent Iraqi lawmakers, including a former prime minister, escaped assassination Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint near their offices here and killed two guards.
Neither former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi nor Saleh Mutlak was in the country. Both condemned the attack as a sign of rampant lawlessness in Iraq despite U.S. and Iraqi claims of greatly improved security.
A statement from Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party said it was the second attack in two days on the secular Shiite Muslim. The statement said a bomb went off Monday near Allawi's home, which also serves as his office. "By God's good grace, no one was hurt," it said.
"The same enemies set off another bomb this morning at the checkpoint immediately opposite the house . . . thinking he was present," the statement added.
Leading political and security officials are constant targets of insurgents in Iraq. Since August, two provincial governors have been assassinated. On Sunday, a provincial police commander praised by U.S. officials for standing up to militias and insurgents was assassinated.
Police said several guards were seriously injured in Tuesday's blast, which occurred in west Baghdad on a street where several lawmakers have homes and offices.
Allawi was appointed prime minister in June 2004 after the fall of President Saddam Hussein and held the job for 10 months. He has survived several attempts on his life, including one in 1978 purportedly carried out by Hussein's agents. He is a fierce critic of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shiite-led government, accusing it of abetting sectarianism and letting militias run the country.
This year, Allawi hired a Washington public relations firm to represent him, leading to speculation he was positioning himself for a bid to take charge again if Maliki's government collapses.
Mutlak is a well-known Sunni Arab politician who heads the Iraqi National Dialogue party. He told Al Arabiya television that the bomber gained access to the street by convincing guards that he worked at one of the offices within the protected area.
"Everyone is vulnerable," Mutlak said on television from Amman, Jordan.
Like Allawi, Mutlak is a critic of the government. He says it has been infiltrated by militias and is biased against members of the Sunni minority.
"There will not be any results if the political process continues as it is," he told Al Arabiya, referring to efforts to achieve reconciliation and stem violence.
