Day: February 26, 2007

Iraq’s Shi’ite vice president and a cabinet minister were wounded in an apparent assassination attempt on Monday when a bomb killed six to 10 people at a ministry in Baghdad where they were attending a ceremony.

An aide said Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a member of the Shi’ite majority that dominates the U.S.-backed government, was taken to hospital after suffering minor wounds in the blast at a hall of the Public Works Ministry building.

But one witness told Reuters the bomb explosion had thrown Abdul-Mahdi against a wall.

By THOMAS FERRARO

A top U.S. Senate Democrat said on Sunday his party aims to limit the role of the nearly 140,000 American troops in Iraq and withdraw most of them from the war-torn country within a year.

But Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said it was unclear if enough Senate Republicans would break ranks with President George W. Bush to allow the effort to proceed.