The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Baghdad

An official in ex-deputy prime minister Ahmad Chalabi's office says six people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on the former Pentagon favorite's convoy in western Baghdad.

But the official, Ayad Kadhim Sabti, says Chalabi escaped Friday night's attack without injuries. Police had previously said Chalabi was not in the convoy.

Sabti said Saturday that the six people killed were Chalabi's bodyguards. Police say 17 others were injured in the attack in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood.

Chalabi is a secular Shiite who was once viewed by Washington as a possible successor to Saddam Hussein.