BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi survived an assassination attempt Sunday as gunmen fired on his convoy as he drove to a local government headquarters in Baghdad, a spokesman for the Iraqi leader said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which prompted the prime minister to cancel a national address planned for Sunday night.
Three people were wounded in the attack, the spokesman said.
“The prime minister emerged from the car without being wounded.”
Abadi, an oil-rich Shiite Muslim, was overseeing a massive operation to retake Iraq’s second-largest city of Fallujah as part of the Islamic State group’s “final” defeat in Iraq.
Abadi took office in 2014 after nearly eight years of harsh, sectarian violence, promising to restore stability in Iraq following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. But his administration has struggled to bring basic services to millions of Iraqis, despite having the backing of the United States and several other coalition countries.
Also Sunday, a car bomb exploded near a funeral procession in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least seven people, police and medical officials said.
Medical officials said the attack occurred in the Bayaa neighborhood. One of the officials said the explosion was in an outdoor funeral procession that gathered mourners near the municipal building.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to release information.