The Hindu : International : Iraqi General assassinated

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Thursday, May 19, 2005

International

International

Iraqi General assassinated

BAGHDAD: Militants gunned down a Brigadier General in Iraq's Interior Ministry on Wednesday, the latest killing in an escalating campaign against the new Government's administration.

The attack came after Iran's Foreign Minister, in a historic visit, pledged to secure his country's borders to stop militants from entering Iraq, and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari prepares for his first foreign trip to neighbouring Turkey.

Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Khamas was shot and killed in his car by four gunmen driving in a four-door sedan as he drove through Baghdad's southeastern Zaafaraniyah district, Police Col. Nouri Abdullah said. Khamas' wife and driver were injured in the attack, he added.

In the northern city of Mosul, 360 km northwest of Baghdad, mortar attacks by militants killed two Iraqis and injured eight others, including seven school children, police and hospital officials said.

A car bomb also detonated in Baqouba, 60 km northeast of Baghdad, injuring 14 persons — including 12 police officers. The car, parked in central Baqouba, blew up as a three-car police convoy drove by, damaging all the vehicles, Police Col. Mudhafar Muhammed said.

Also in Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting an American military convoy driving through the eastern part of the city injured seven Iraqis, Police Lt. Col. Ahmed Aboud Efait said. There were no reports of any Americans injured, he added.

Driver shot dead

Gunmen also shot dead a transport ministry driver, Ali Mutib Sakr, in Sadr City, a predominantly Shia area in the eastern part of the capital, Police Lt. Col Shakir Wadi said.

The violence came one day after Iran's Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said the ``situation would have been much worse'' in Iraq if Teheran were actually supporting the militancy as the United States has claimed.

Iranian envoy Kamal Kharrazi's trip on Tuesday — two days after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to support the war-ravaged country's political process — was the highest-level visit by an official from any of Iraq's six neighbouring countries since Saddam Hussein's ouster two years ago.

Mr. Kharrazi, who held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on a day of deepening sectarian violence, vowed that his country was committed to supporting Iraq's political and economic reconstruction.

``We believe securing the borders between the two countries means security to the Islamic Republic of Iran,'' Mr. Kharrazi said. — AP

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