Baghdad, SAEDNEWS: A statement released by the Security Media Cell, affiliated with the Iraqi prime minister’s office, said Kadhimi was subjected to a failed assassination attempt with a booby-trapped drone early Sunday.
The statement said the drone attack targeted his residence in the Green Zone of Baghdad, but the Iraqi prime minister was “unharmed” and is “in good health.”
Two government officials said Kadhimi's residence had been hit by at least one explosion. Security sources said six members of Kadhimi's personal protection force stationed outside his residence had been injured.
Western diplomats based in the Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies, said they heard explosions and gunfire in the area.
“I'm doing fine, praise be to God, and I call for calm and restraint on the part of everyone for the good of Iraq,” the Iraqi prime minister wrote on Twitter after the incident.
‘Assassination attempt must be traced back to foreign think tanks’
Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani also reacted to reports about an assassination attempt on the Iraqi prime minister.
“The attempt for al-Kadhimi’s assassination is a new sedition that must be traced back to foreign think tanks, which have brought nothing but insecurity, discord & instability to oppressed Iraqi people through creation & support of terrorist groups & occupation of this country for years,” Shamkhani tweeted.
The drone attack, for which no group has claimed responsibility yet, came after protests in the Iraqi capital over the results of last month’s legislative elections turned violent on Friday.
Demonstrators denounced what they called “fraud” in the polls, and clashed with security forces outside Baghdad’s high-security Green Zone.
Gunfire could be occasionally heard on the protest site, with as many as three protesters reported dead and dozens wounded.
According to the Iraqi Health Ministry, 125 people, including 27 civilians and nearly 100 security forces, were injured during the violence.
Iraqi leaders and resistance groups have denounced attacks on people protesting against the results of the October 10 elections, in which Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s party won 73 seats to be the largest group in the country’s 329-strong parliament (Source: PRESS TV).
Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi Visits Mashhad
