Iraq’s vice-president and its public works minister were both slightly hurt on Monday when a bomb hidden in the ceiling of a ministry building exploded, a lawmaker in their party said.
Four other people were killed in the attack, medics said.
The senior Shi’ite officials were quickly released from a United States military hospital after doctors established that they had only received ”scratches”, the lawmaker said.
Vice-President Adel Abdel Mahdi was arriving for a meeting with his fellow Shi’ite minister Riyad Ghraib when the attack took place, but was only lightly hurt and was later released from hospital, Jalal al-Din al-Saghir said.
”The vice-president got a scratch on his foot,” the Shi’ite lawmaker said.
”He went to Ibn Sina Hospital and he was given the normal tests. He left immediately afterwards and he’s in his office,” he said.
”The explosion happened when the party arrived at the meeting room. It appears that according to the first reports we have that the bomb was in the ceiling of the room,” he added.
”The minister was wounded in the same way. He went to hospital and left later. He also just had scratches,” he said.
Security officials and medics said that at least four people were killed — including a senior ministry official — and 26 more were wounded.
Iraqi soldiers sealed off the ministry in the Mansur district of west Baghdad shortly after the blast and troops could be seen carrying away an unconscious comrade and handcuffing a suspect. — AFP
