A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the Iraqi labor minister's convoy Thursday, killing nine people, officials said. Minister Mahmoud Mohammed al-Radhi was not in the convoy when it was attacked in a busy commercial area of central Baghdad about 8 a.m., an Interior Ministry official was quoted as saying by CNN. The attack wounded 20 people, including some of the minister's security guards and some civilians. Al-Radhi, was approved as labor and social affairs minister by the Iraqi parliament in May 2006.
