Iraq's Deputy Oil Minister Escapes Bomb Attack

Iraq's Deputy Oil Minister Saheb Salman Al-Qutub was wounded in a bomb attack outside his home in the northern Ataifiyah neighborhood of Baghdad.

"The senior deputy oil minister Abdul Saheb Al-Qutub escaped an assassination attempt by improvised explosive device close to his house on Monday morning," the oil ministry said.

"The deputy minister left the hospital after he received the required treatment," the ministry said, adding that Al-Qutub suffered slight wounds and his driver was severely hurt.

Al-Qutub, a Shiite from the southern province of Basra, also survived an assassination attempt in 2004 along the highway between Baghdad and Hilla, south of Baghdad. His driver was killed in that attempt. He was an adviser to the oil minister at the time.

Al-Qutub was appointed to his position last year when the former deputy oil minister, Abdul Jabar Al-Wagaa, a Sunni, decided to retire after being kidnapped along with four other ministry officials. Al-Wagaa was released a few weeks later.

The latest attempted assassination on Al-Qutub coincided with reports that Iraq's crude oil exports in October rose 3.6% to 1.703 million b/d a day from 1.644 million b/d.

Iraq exported 1.385 million b/d a day from through the Basra oil terminal, while some 309,000 b/d were exported via pipeline to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The remaining 9,000 b/d were trucked to neighboring Jordan.

Author: Jo Amey