Iraq's deputy oil minister survived an assassination attempt on Monday as the Iraqi captial was hit by four bomb attacks that killed seven people and wounded at least 30 more. Saheb Salman Qutub, who oversees the country's crude oil production, was leaving his home in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Ataifiyah when the roadside bomb detonated, his ministry and police said. “(He) escaped the assassination attempt by improvised explosive device close to his house on Monday morning,” a ministry statement said. Qutub was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital and discharged, it said. His driver was seriously wounded and hospitalized. The attack came after two almost simultaneous rush-hour bombings hit Baghdad's central commercial district of Karrada, killing six people and wounding at least 20 others. Security officials said insurgents had set the two bombs near the office of the police crime investigation unit. The force of the blasts blew out store windows in the busy retail area. In the city of Baquba, about 60 kilometers north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in a parking lot across the street from the Diyala provincial council, killing one policeman and injuring nine, police said. Diyala and its capital is still considered one of Iraq's most dangerous areas, despite repeated military offensives to root out the entrenched Al-Qaeda network. Monday's attacks in Baghdad were the first in five days and showed that despite an overall decline in violence, insurgents are still capable of striking the heavily guarded capital with ease. Last week militants blew up a water pipeline in the Baghdad Sunni bastion of Adhamiyah, disrupting the supply of drinking water to hundreds of thousands of residents. The October 30 attack came after a roadside bomb exploded in front of a juice stall in Palestine Street in central Baghdad, killing five people and wounding another 13. Nevertheless the US military has said that Baghdad is now much safer, averaging four attacks a day or 89 percent fewer than in 2006 and 83 percent lower than in 2007. The US military also says that levels of violence nationwide have fallen to four-year lows. Iraqi security officials also say monthly casualty levels across the country have dropped. In October, 317 civilians and security personnel were killed in insurgent and militia violence, a fall of 28 percent on September. A total of 44 militants were also killed and 855 arrested.
