Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he had escaped four attempts to kill him since he assumed the top post on July 28, the last only five days ago.
Allawi told the London-based Saudi daily al-Hayat that five days ago his guards had been suspicious of a car just outside the Green Zone in central Baghdad, which later exploded.
His guards had then clashed with gunmen, arresting two Arab nationals belonging to a Muslim extremist group, Allawi said, without identifying the detainees or their affiliation.
He said a number of terrorist followers of the suspected al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu Misaab Zarqawi, had been arrested recently, and that Arabs, Pakistanis, Chechens and people from other Muslim countries had been sent to perform acts of terror in Iraq.
Allawi said ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been suffering from depression and melancholy since he heard of Allawi's appointment as prime minister.
"He (Saddam) sent me a verbal message saying that what he did in the past was in the interest of the nation and not aimed at harming others ... I replied that these matters would be decided in court," Allawi said.
Saddam and his top aides are to stand trial at a special Iraqi tribunal on charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
© Copyright 2004 by United Press International
