The US chief administrator of Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, revealed yesterday that he escaped an ambush in Baghdad on December 6th. "Thankfully, I am still alive, and here I am in front of you."
Mr Bremer was travelling on the airport road in an armoured civilian vehicle when a roadside bomb exploded, and insurgents attacked with small arms fire, said Mr Dan Senor, a spokesman for the administration. The convoy sped away with no injuries to passengers or guards.
The incident occurred on the day the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, visited Baghdad, and was not promptly reported to the press.
Mr Senor said Mr Bremer had not changed his schedule for touring the country. He journeyed to the southern port city of Basra yesterday.
No extra security measures were observable at the offices of the occupation administration in the Republican Palace in central Baghdad.
News of the attack broke as an explosion destroyed the head- quarters of the Badr Brigade, the military branch of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of Iraq's main Shi'ite political parties.
Mr Muhammad Hashimi, an aide to Iraqi Governing Council President and leader of the party, Mr Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said a woman was killed in the blast.
The Badr Brigade, raised during Mr Hakim's period of exile in Tehran and trained and armed by the Iranian Islamic Republican Guards, is set to contribute troops to a militia being set up to combat resistance groups.
Meanwhile, Mr David Kay, the former UN weapons inspector recruited in June to lead the hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, may resign early in the new year. He is reportedly under strong pressure from his family to leave Iraq because of the security situation.
A former member of Iraq's secret nuclear weapons team told The Irish Times that Mr Kay's team continued to press Iraqi scientists on weapons programmes. The scientist, who was interviewed last week, said the programme had been disbanded in 1991, and its members given the task of rebuilding power plants.