IRAQ: Ahmad Chalabi has survived again. Just after escaping an attempt to kill him yesterday, the politician said an Iraqi court had dropped charges that could have put him in jail.
Mr Chalabi, now a vocal critic of US policy in Iraq after years as a Pentagon favourite, was on the road to Baghdad when his convoy was ambushed.
He was returning from a visit to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most respected Shi'ite Muslim leader, when the vehicles came under attack.
Mr Chalabi escaped unharmed but two of his guards were killed, two wounded and two went missing.
"One of our cars was left behind. We found it burnt and the bodies of two guards burnt inside it," Mr Chalabi said.
"It was an ambush. I don't think there is anything further to say. These things are part of the job," he told Reuters.
The attack took place in the Latifiya area south of the Iraqi capital on a road notorious for kidnappings and ambushes.Scores of people have been killed on the route, the main artery from Baghdad to the holy city of Najaf.
The ease with which attackers could target a 10-car convoy in daylight on one of Iraq's busiest highways - a year and a half after President Saddam Hussein was toppled - showed a failure of US security policy in Iraq, Mr Chalabi said.
"The lack of security we see is due to the selection and training process of the coalition. The political forces that fought Saddam must meet to reorganise the security forces," he said, adding that former members of Saddam's Baath Party members were creeping back into the army and security apparatus.
"It is no good to say 'bring these people back because they can do the job', with no regard to their attitude and commitment to democracy."
Mr Chalabi, who brought together foes of Saddam under the umbrella of his Iraqi National Congress, escaped several attempts on his life during decades in exile.
He spearheaded attempts by the US-appointed Governing Council to remove Baath Party members from positions of power.
But his influence waned after his relationship with Washington soured. A relative and political foe, Mr Iyad Allawi, became interim prime minister in June and began reversing the "de-Baathification" policy.
A US-appointed Iraqi judge issued an arrest warrant against Mr Chalabi last month on charges of counterfeiting money, but Chalabi - pronounced by his enemies as politically dead at the time - returned to Iran to face the charges.
Although he was outmanoeuvred by Mr Allawi and was kept out of the interim government, Mr Chalabi was recently appointed to Iraq's interim national assembly. He has good ties with the Iraqi president and a number of ministers in the government.
The dropping of the charges against him could pave the way for him to build a political base among Shi'ites, having forged alliances with anti-US figures such as the cleric Mr Moqtada al-Sadr, who launched a three-week uprising this month.
Mr Chalabi, the scion of a prominent Shi'ite Muslim merchant family, is also one of the few Iraqi politicians with access to Ayatollah Sistani, who has insisted on prompt elections.
Mr Chalabi says his Iraqi National Congress will contest the elections, expected to take place next January, on a platform that includes withdrawal of US forces in two years and limiting military operations such as the bombardment of Najaf's old city last month. - (Reuters)
Additional reporting by Huda Majeed Saleh