The governor of Babylon province survived an assassination attempt in Baghdad on Sunday when a car bomb killed one of his bodyguards and wounded nine people, Iraqi security sources said. The device exploded at around 1 pm (1000 GMT) as Salem Musalamawi's convoy passed through the Al-Qadisiyah district, two security sources who requested anonymity said.
One bodyguard was killed, four members of Musalamawi's escort were wounded and five civilians were also wounded in the blast but the governor himself escaped unscathed. The injured were taken to the nearby Yarmuk hospital, one of the largest in the capital.
Musalamawi is a member of the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), one of the key members of the governing coalition, which rivals radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement in representing Iraq's majority Shiite community.