Iraq's labor minister survives suicide car bomb

A suicide bomber slammed his explosives-filled car into the convoy of Iraq's labor minister in Baghdad on Thursday, killing 11 people and wounding 22, police said.

The bomber attacked Minister Mahmud Jawad al-Radi's convoy in central Baghdad's Tahreer Square but the minister escaped unhurt, ministry spokesman Abdullah al-Lami said. Three of his bodyguards were among
the dead.

A Reuters television cameraman in the vicinity filmed the blast, but said an Iraqi soldier confiscated his videotape.

The cameraman, about 150 meters (yards) away at the time of the explosion, saw a car slam into a convoy of six or seven four-wheel-drive vehicles and explode in a ball of flame.

Police and bodyguards in the convoy opened fire after the blast. Several vehicles crashed and others sped away as chaos ensued.