Gunmen kill official of Iraq’s Kurd party
Tensions on rise as election nears
BAGHDAD — Gunmen have killed a member of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s political alliance in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Kirkuk, police officials said Tuesday.
Subhi Hassan, who handled political relations for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and a bodyguard were killed Monday by unidentified gunmen who chased down their car after it passed through a checkpoint, said Police Brigadier Ahmed Hawandi.
A third person in the car was wounded, Hawandi said.
The shooting is the latest in a spate of killings that appear to be politically motivated and come in advance of the Jan. 31 nationwide provincial elections.
Although violence is down 80 percent nationwide, U. S. officials say the security situation remains tenuous, and some areas of the country are still dangerous.
U. S. and Iraqi officials hope the elections will redress problems created by the last provincial balloting in January 2005, when Sunnis largely stayed away from the polls and Kurds and Shiites won a disproportionate share of the power.
Iraqi and U. S. military officials have expressed concern about a possible increase in violence before the election and after the balloting.
Last month, two political candidates in southern Basra were killed by unidentified gunmen and another was wounded in separate incidents. Earlier in December, police said attackers stormed a home in Kirkuk and decapitated the leader of the women’s league of the Kurdish Communist Party after breaking into her home.
The city of Kirkuk lies 180 miles north of Baghdad.
Also Tuesday, the U. S. military said troops killed a civilian in a vehicle after the driver failed to heed warnings to stop in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
The military said a convoy was passing through an intersection when the vehicle approached and failed to heed several warnings given by soldiers.
“Given the potential danger the vehicle presented to the convoy and the driver’s repeated failure to respond to warnings, U. S. forces took action to disable the vehicle,” the military said.
An Iraqi police officer identified the dead man as Mohammed Qassim, 25, but said he was the driver and not the passenger.
The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the driver appeared to be speeding and did not respond when the American soldiers issued warnings to stop.
Also Tuesday, police said a parked car bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol exploded in the primarily Sunni neighborhood of Sadiyah in southwestern Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding six others.
Elsewhere, a gunman killed an Iraqi soldier in a drive-by shooting as he walked to his home in Riyad, north of Baghdad, according to a police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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