Militants loyal to Iraq's Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said they attempted to assassinate outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, in a statement posted on the internet.

"Yesterday (Wednesday), a lion from the martyrs' brigade of the Al-Qaeda Organisation (in the Land of Two Rivers) attacked the headquarters of the apostate and ally of the Jews and Christians after we received information from the intelligence service inside the enemy," said the statement posted on an Islamist website Thursday.

"Many were killed but Allawi was saved. But if this time the arrow did not pierce him, we have other arrows in our quiver," said the statement, the authenticity of which could not be independently verified.

The car bomb targeting Allawi's motorcade was the fifth attempt on the prime minister's life. Two policemen were killed in the blast.

"He had attended an important meeting to discuss the formation of the government and was on his way back home when a car bomber blew himself up near the convoy as it approached the checkpoint," said Allawi's spokesman Thaer al-Naqib.

Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for scores of deadly attacks in Iraq. In December, Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden named the Jordanian-born militant the network's "emir" in Iraq.

© 2005 Agence France-Presse

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