TIKRIT, Iraq, Jan. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- A high-ranking Iraqi army officer escaped an assassination attempt when a makeshift bomb went off near his convoy in northern Iraq on Sunday, a source from the Iraqi-US liaison office in Tikrit told Xinhua.

    "A makeshift bomb detonated at about 10:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) as the convoy of Brigadier Fraidoon Abdul Qader, senior officer of the Tikrit-based Iraqi army 4th Division, passed by in west of the Toz Khormato town," the source said.

    Qader was slightly wounded, and three of his bodyguards were seriously wounded and their vehicle destroyed in the attack near the town, some 200 km north of Baghdad, he said.

    Insurgents often attack Iraqi government employees and security forces in an attempt to cripple the US-backed government in the violence-ravaged country. Enditem