A Sunni religious leader who called on Iraqis to fight US troops but has more recently advocated national reconciliation was wounded by a car bomb as the Eid al-Fitr festival began in Baghdad on Sunday. Mehdi al-Sumaidaie was travelling in west Baghdad after leading prayers on the first day of Eid, which marks the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, when the attack occurred.
"A car bomb targeted the convoy of Sheikh Sumaidaie after he left a mosque in Yarmuk," an interior ministry official said, referring to a neighbourhood in the capital's west. The official, who declined to be identified, said Sumaidaie and four of his bodyguards were wounded in the blast.
The religious leader's cousin Ibrahim al-Sumaidaie, a Baghdad-based political analyst, confirmed his relative was wounded.