|
KIRKUK, Iraq — A senior Kurdish official died
Monday after being shot by gunmen overnight in this
northern city, a government official said.
Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Barazanchi, the director of
internal affairs of Kirkuk province and a former
police chief, was shot several times late Sunday,
said Ismail al-Hadithi, Kirkuk's deputy governor.
"Insurgents have targeted him to arouse sedition and
sectarianism," al-Hadithi told Associated Press
Television News. "He was walking without a bodyguard
and in a sensitive area."
The assassination is the second in several days,
following Friday's slaying of a moderate Sunni
Muslim tribal leader, Sheik Sabhan Khalaf al-Jibouri,
who had close ties to Iraqi Kurds in the northern
city of Kirkuk.
Kirkuk is an ethnically mixed city 180 miles north
of Baghdad.
Insurgents have routinely targeted moderate tribal
leaders along with Kurdish and Turkomen officials,
seeking to foment ethnic tension. Militants
operating here have also attacked police.
AP
Top |
® 