Al-Mashhadani was not in the convoy when the bomb, placed in the trunk of his car, exploded. A second bomb was found under another car in the convoy and was detonated by an American military bomb squad.

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On Feb. 26, Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi narrowly escaped assassination when a blast ripped through a government meeting hall just hours after it was searched by US teams with bomb-sniffing dogs. At least 10 people were killed.

Abdul-Mahdi was slightly wounded in the explosion, which splintered chairs and destroyed a speakers' podium. It went off moments after the minister for public works finished a speech in the third-floor chamber. Abdul-Mahdi had made a welcoming address a few minutes earlier, raising speculation the bomb could have been on a timer-trigger that missed the vice president by sheer luck.

Al-Askari said not even the Green Zone was safe these days because personal security details, like the one working for al-Zubaie and other officials, are not under government control.

"Every government official and lawmaker choses his own security detail. I'm one of them, I chose my own security detail," he said.

The al-Maliki aide said that two members of al-Mashhadani's security detail, both in possession of their US-issued security IDs, had been caught last summer planting a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.

The top security official said negotiations had been successfully concluded to hire a foreign company to take over security at the entrance to and inside the Convention Center, where parliament meets. The official would not name the security company or say what the cost would be because a contract had not been signed.

A second security official said the plan was to sign a six-month contract to allow the Iraqis time to establish their own force of trained bodyguards.

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