Chalabi targeted in Baghdad

A car bomb targeting the convoy of influential politician, Ahmed Chalabi, has killed two civilians and wounded 17 others in Baghdad. 

The bomb exploded on Friday night in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour when the convoy was traveling to one of Chalabi's offices. 

Chalabi, a key adviser to Washington in the build up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, was not in the convoy, Iraqi police said on Friday. 

Nine of Chalabi's bodyguards were wounded but the dead were not immediately identifiable, said the source. 

Chalabi was the former Iraqi deputy prime minister and was once viewed by the US as a possible successor to Saddam Hussein. 

Earlier in May, Washington cut ties with him over his allegedly unauthorized contacts with the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has rejected the allegations.