BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior U.S. diplomat survived on Monday when a suicide car bomber struck a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad, several police sources said.
The U.S. official's identity was unclear. It was not clear if he was specifically the target and a U.S. embassy spokesman said he was unaware of the incident, adding that he was unaware of any diplomatic convoy being struck.
A spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party, a major Sunni Muslim grouping, said a senior U.S. official had just left its compound in western Baghdad when the explosion went off.
An Interior Ministry spokesman and police had said earlier that a U.S. military convoy had been attacked by a suicide car bomber in the west of Baghdad at around 2 p.m. (1000 GMT) and that two civilians nearby had been killed and five wounded.
Witnesses said a U.S. army Humvee was on fire after the blast and said a U.S. helicopter arrived to evacuate the wounded. They said three U.S. soldiers were evacuated, but the details could not be confirmed with the U.S. military.
There has been a surge in suicide car bombings in Iraq over the past six weeks, since a new, Shi'ite-led government was formed, with many of them targeting Iraqi police and soldiers. Around 900 people have been killed in that time, most of them civilians.
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