Sadrist spokesman escapes assassination in Baghdad

"The media official of the Sadr movement Abdul Jabbar Waheed al-Hajami was not injured in the attempt on his life in Al-Nedhal street by unknown gunmen," a police official in the capital said.Â

The attack in central Baghdad killed Hajami’s driver and wounded a colleague, added the official.

An official from the head Sadr office in Najaf confirmed the incident and demanded that the government guarantee the security of Iraqis and followers of Sadr’s conservative Islamist movement.

Sadr, said to be aged in his 30s, gained wide popularity among Shites in Iraq in the months after the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 and in 2004 his Mahdi Army militia battled U.S. troops in two bloody revolts.

He disappeared after a public appearance at an Iraqi mosque in June 2007 and had only issued statements through senior aides and spokesmen until he emerged in Ankara earlier this month when he held face-to-face talks with top Turkish leaders.

In August 2007, he suspended the activities of his Mahdi Army, which once numbered in the tens of thousands.

The militia was weakened the following year when U.S. and Iraqi troops launched assaults on its strongholds in Baghdad and southern Iraq.