A senior aide to radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr was assassinated on the road between the holy city of Najaf and Baghdad, an official from the movement said Wednesday. Sayed Bashir al-Jazaeri was killed Tuesday when his car came under fire as he was returning from Najaf, which was until recently the scene of fierce fighting between US forces and Sadr's militia. Jazaeri headed one of Sadr's local offices near the capital, said Sayed Naim al-Qaabi. The cleric told AFP the attack might have been perpetrated by Kurdish hit squads extremist Sunni Muslim organisations Iranian controllers cutting links or former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, and accused the government of failing to provide security in this area south of Baghdad. "Even the Iraqi government said that lots of important personalities were targeted in this area. Why is it doing nothing about it?", he asked. | Cuz the right people are dying? |
| On the other hand, every once in awhile a member of the Iraqi gummint gets bumped off, so why should Tater's thugs be special? |
On Wednesday morning, Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi told reporters as he prepared to take the oath at the interim parliament's opening session that he had just escaped an assassination attempt on the same road. The cities of Laitifiya, Mahmudiya and Iskandariya command access to the road which runs south of Baghdad to the holy Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala. |