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Iraqi
Official Assassinated, 2 Others Killed
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U.S.
occupation forces are still under continued attacks in Iraq
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BAGHDAD,
Iraq, November 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A member of a
U.S.-sponsored Baghdad neighborhood council was killed in a drive-by
shooting, as two other Iraqis were shot dead in separate attacks one of
them was targeting a convoy carrying a local government official in
northeastern Baghdad on Monday, November 3.
Mustafa
Zaidan Al-Khaleefa, the chairperson of the Karkh Neighborhood Council,
was killed on Sunday evening "while he was walking alone on Haifa
Street near his home" in central Baghdad, the U.S.-led occupation
forces said in a statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A
white Toyota Corolla, with no license plates, drove up and one of its
occupants shot him.
The
deadly shooting was the third assassination of a pro-U.S. Iraqi
political figure in the past eight days.
Kidnapped
The
announcement came as Muhan Jabr Al-Shuwaili, a judge chairing the Najaf
Tribunal and the investigative commission was shot dead Monday after an
apparent kidnapping.
Muhan
Jabr Al-Shuwaili, was kidnapped along with Najaf prosecutor general Aref
Aziz, from the judge's house in the city early Monday, Aziz said.
The
two were taken in cars to a desert area, eight kilometers (five miles)
north of Najaf, he said.
"One
of the assailants said 'Saddam has ordered your prosecution.' Then they
fired two shots into his head," Aziz said.
Shuwaili
headed the special inquiry commission created in Najaf for the
prosecution of former regime loyalists, mainly members of the once
ruling Baath party, and which have so far received 400 complaints.
The
U.S. occupation forces blame the growing attacks on its forces and Iraq
employees on the remnants of the former regime.
But
anti-American sentiments are rising among ordinary Iraqis who are jeered
by the continued occupation and lack of security or basic services, and
who consider the U.S.-appointed governors and employees as
collaborators.
Baghdad's
assistant mayor was also assassinated
outside his house in the Iraqi capital on October 29, one month after
Akila Al-Hashimi, one of three female members in the U.S.-selected Iraqi
interim governing council, died
from wounds sustaining in an earlier assassination.
And
on October 26, Baghdad's deputy mayor, Faris Abdul Razzaq Al-Assam, was
gunned down near his home in the conflict-riven city.
Surviving
Fresh Assassination
In
the meanwhile, deputy Governor Aqil Hamed of the Muaskar Saad region
near the restive city of Baqubah, 60 kms northeast of Baghdad, survived
a fresh blast, which killed one passer-by and injured 15 others
including a policeman and four civil defense workers.
Hamed
told AFP that "the explosion seems to be a remote-controlled device
and it failed to hit my car which was protected by a large truck that
happened to pass by".
He
claimed it is the second such attempt against him, as the first also
missed "my convoy not too far from here," on October 23.
U.S.
forces who rushed to the site detained Al-Jazeera television cameraman
Salah Hassan, according to AFP correspondent Ali Youssef, who was also
threatened by a soldier by waving handcuffs in his face.
Youssef's
car, parked about 150 meters (yards) away from the site of the
explosion, was damaged by a Humvee armored vehicle, according to the
correspondent and witnesses.
Fresh
Deaths
Elsewhere
in Iraq, an Iraqi civilian was killed and eight others wounded in mortar
fire near a U.S. military position in the northern city of Kirkuk late
Sunday, November 2.
The
mortars were fired at around 11:20 pm (2020 GMT) on central
neighborhoods in Kirkuk, 225 km (140 miles) north of Baghdad, said
Lieutenant Colonel Torhan Yusef, head of police forces in Kirkuk.
Aidan
Ezzedin, 54, was instantly killed when a mortar slammed on his house,
close to a U.S. position, while eight other civilians were wounded,
including two in serious condition, when a second mortar hit another
house near a U.N. office.
Later,
policeman Faridun Mohamad, 30, was wounded in the left leg when an
explosive charge blew up as he was passing in a police patrol car in
Dumis neighborhood east of Kirkuk, Colonel Anwar Mohamad Sader said.
Oil-rich
Kirkuk has also become an active front in the war between the U.S.
military and Iraqi fighters since the downfall of the Iraqi capital on
April 9.
Moving
north, a U.S. soldier was wounded Monday by small arms fire and a bomb
attack on a military convoy near Samarra, 110 kilometers (70 miles) of
Baghdad, witnesses said.
A
U.S. military convoy was hit by small arms fire and a bomb blast at 3:30
pm (1230 GMT) and one soldier was wounded, said farmer Matar Mahmud.
Also
Monday, a blast ripped a hole in a main fuel pipeline near the oil-rich
city of Kirkuk on Monday, but oil officials and Iraqi police averted a
much bigger explosion at the same site.
Saboteurs
detonated the pipeline running from the Janbur North oil fields to
Kirkuk, 35 kilometers (22 miles) away, Northern Oil Company official
Saeq Jaburi said.
The
attacks came a few hours after 16 U.S. soldiers were
killed and 21 wounded when an American helicopter gunship was shot down outside
the flashpoint town of Fallujah.
Sixteen
of the injured were admitted to the army's medical center in Germany,
according to the U.S. officials.
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