State of Law MP survives attempt on his life in Baghdad

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A legislator from Dawlat al-Qanoon (State of Law) escaped an assassination attempt when a group of armed men attacked his motorcade on Friday evening in southeastern Baghdad, the third one since the March 7 elections in the war-torn country, his office said on Saturday. “An armed group attempted to assassinate Shahmani after they opened fire on his motorcade while he was heading to his mother’s home in al-Amin neighborhood, southeastern Baghdad, on Friday evening,” a spokesman in his office told IraqiNews.com news agency. “Shahmani survived unscathed the third attempt on his life since the March 7 general elections,” he added. Shahmani had defected from the Sadrist Movement of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr to establish the National Iraq Grouping, which joined Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law bloc. A security source in the Iraqi interior ministry had said a ministry’s internal affairs department force arrested on Friday a group of armed men in al-Amin neighborhood on charges of planning lawmaker Shahmani. His office, however, denied reports that the group was arrested. AmR (S) 2