Senior Sunni Lawmaker Killed in Iraq
By VOA News
12 June 2009
Iraqi authorities said a senior Sunni lawmaker has been shot and killed outside a mosque in Baghdad.
An official with the lawmaker's party said Harith al-Obeidi was killed after Friday prayers at the al-Shawaf mosque in the Yarmouk area of the Iraqi capital.
Al-Obeidi was the head of a large Sunni Muslim bloc in Iraq's parliament. He was also a member of parliament's human rights committee.
Thursday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned violence could increase in the coming weeks as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw from urban areas.
Mr. Maliki told a meeting of Iraqi commanders in Baghdad that attacks likely will intensify as insurgents try to give the impression that Iraqi forces are a failure.
Mr. Maliki described Wednesday's car bomb attack in the town of Bathaa as a political message and said it was part of an insurgent campaign to reignite sectarian violence. Iraqi officials said that attack killed at least 33 people.
U.S. forces in Iraq are planning to pull out of Iraqi cities by the end of June, in line with an agreement reached with Iraq's government.
U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw all American combat troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
