Another Iraq woman lawmaker survives kidnap bid

BAGHDAD, July 2 (Reuters) A Shi'ite member of Iraq's parliament escaped an attempt to kidnap her today but several bodyguards were abducted in the second such attack on a woman lawmaker around Baghdad in as many days, colleagues said.

Leqa al-Yaseen, a hospital director from Najaf and a member of the dominant Shi'ite Islamist Alliance bloc, was safe after her convoy was attacked by gunmen on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, police and several fellow politicians said.

Details of their accounts were contradictory, however.

In parliament, the main minority Sunni bloc said it would boycott future sessions until Taiseer Najah al-Mashhadani was freed after being kidnapped on Saturday along with seven of her bodyguards as they drove through a mainly Shi'ite district.

Alliance member of parliament Hadi al-Amery said Yaseen had escaped when her driver, though wounded, drove her through the ambush. Seven bodyguards travelling behind were captured.

Fawzi Akram, who like Yaseen belongs to the Alliance faction led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, said, however, that Yaseen had not been present during the attack at all.

An official at the Interior Ministry said eight people had been abducted in the incident, between the town of Mahmudiya and the southern Baghdad suburb of Dora, an area where insurgents and militia groups are very active.

It is not clear who was behind the abduction of Mashhadani but the implication of her colleagues' boycott in parliament is that they blame militiamen loyal to Shi'ite parties. Many Sunnis accuse Sadr's Mehdi Army militia of kidnaps and murders.

Yaseen is a hospital director in the Shi'ite city of Najaf, south of the capital, colleagues said. Several said she was personally related to Sadr, though that could not be confirmed.

Also today, a Shi'ite lawmaker from the non-sectarian party of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi survived an assassination attempt in Baghdad. Liberal cleric Iyad Jamalideen, who favours secular authority in politics, was unhurt but two of his guards and four civilians were wounded.

The Industry Ministry denied police reports that gunmen had taken one of three deputy ministers from his office on Sunday.

REUTERS CH BST1902