Iraqi governor in bomb attack

The governor of eastern Iraq's Diyala province Saturday survived a roadside bomb that targeted his convoy, on the same day an interior ministry official was targeted by a similar attack in al-Anbar province. The bomb left two policemen injured. Governor Hisham al-Hiyali said he was travelling Saturday near the provincial capital city of Baquba, 65km from Baghdad, when the bomb exploded. Three of Hiyali's bodyguards were wounded in the blast, which also damaged two of his vehicles, while Hiyali himself was not harmed. In the western Anbar province, two policemen were injured when a bomb attached to their car detonated near provincial capital Ramadi, 110km from Baghdad, a military source told Arabstoday. The bomb was targeting General Mared Abdelhassan, an interior ministry official responsible for overseeing the affairs of local clans. Security sources in Diyala province told Arabstoday that local police also discovered extremist leaflets belonging to al-Qaeda'ranch in east Baquba. The papers contained threats to target policemen and military soldiers. Meanwhile, members of the ruling National Coalition and the Kurdish Coalition, have called on both prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and the president of the Iraqi's autonomous Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, to stop a recent war of words between them. The National Coalition's MP Mohammed Hindawi said in a press conference held in the parliament's headquarters that Maliki and Barzani have to convene soon to discuss their disputes, saying the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, may have a role to play in mending ties between the two men.