An Iraqi journalist for one of the Middle East's best-known satellite television stations escaped assassination Tuesday when a bomb was found under the seat of his car as he prepared to leave home for work, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The attempt against Jawad al-Hattab, Baghdad bureau manager for Al-Arabiya television, illustrates the dangers facing Iraq despite the decline in violence.
Some details:
Al-Hattab's driver and a security guard discovered the laptop-sized bomb as they waited to pick up the correspondent at his home in central Baghdad, according to the station's executive editor Nabil Khatib. The two moved away from the car and summoned police but the device exploded before they arrived, heavily damaging the vehicle and setting it on fire, Khatib said.
"It appears that it was timed to explode while al-Hattab was driving to the office," Khatib said, calling the blast "an attempt on his life and an attack against the station."
"Some (Web) sites describe us as renegades and collaborators with the Americans," said Al-Arabiya correspondent Majid Hameed, who was detained by the Americans in September 2005 and released without charge four months later.
The attempted bombing occurred as the Emirates' new ambassador to Baghdad, Abdullah Ibrahim al-Shehhi, took up his post — the first fully accredited Arab ambassador here since the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
