Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's minister of state survived a roadside bomb explosion near his convoy in eastern Baghdad on Monday, while his two bodyguards were wounded, the Iraqi state-run television said.

    Mohammed Abbas Auraibi, member of Iraq's Shiite governing majority, escaped the blast at about 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on a highway in Baghdad, the television said without providing further information.

    Auraibi is the second senior official targeted by insurgent in two days after gunmen wearing police uniforms late on Sunday stormed the house of deputy Health Minister Ammar Assafar in Baghdad's northern district of Adhamiyah and kidnapped him. The deputy minister was a member of Dawa party headed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.