The Hindu : International : Baghdad Governor shot dead

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Wednesday, Jan 05, 2005

International

International

Baghdad Governor shot dead

By Atul Aneja

The Governor of Baghdad, Ali al-Haidri, in a recent TV image. — AP

MANAMA, JAN. 4. The Governor of Baghdad, Ali al-Haidri, has been killed in a roadside attack in the Iraqi capital, marking the highest-ranking assassination there since May. Gunmen shot at his armour-plated BMW car from several directions as his convoy transited through northern Baghdad.

Mr. Haidri is the most senior Iraqi official to be assassinated in Baghdad since the killing of the head of the Iraqi Governing Council by a suicide bomb in May last year.

At least one of his bodyguards was also killed in the attack, which took place in the Hurriyah neighbourhood, straddling the west bank of the river Tigris. Mr. Haidri had escaped assassination in a roadside bombing in September. There has been a spurt in attacks by the Iraqi resistance ahead of the controversial January 30 national elections.

Violence also took a heavy toll of lives on Monday, resulting in the killing of 27 persons in Iraq. A bomb went off outside the headquarters of the interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party, killing four persons and injuring 24.

Another explosion rocked an area outside the Green Zone that houses government offices and the U.S. embassy. In Dujail, a car bomber blew up a national guard station, killing seven persons and wounding eight. Another such incident targeted national guardsmen at a checkpoint outside a U.S. military base near Balad.

In Tel Afar, on the route to the Syrian border , a policeman was killed when he approached a headless body that had been booby-trapped with a bomb.

Responding to the rise in guerilla attacks, Abdullah Shahwani, head of Iraqi intelligence, has estimated that nearly 200,000 men are part of the Iraqi resistance.

The unabated violence also appears to have affected the perception about the coming elections among some senior officials in the Iraqi interim government. The Defence Minister, Hazem Shaalan, has said it might be possible to postpone the elections , if the Sunni Arabs, agreed to participate in the polls at a later date.

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