Saturday, January 17, 2009
BAGHDAD (AP) — A Shiite candidate for provincial elections was assassinated Friday while campaigning south of Baghdad, officials said.
An American soldier, meanwhile, was killed in a roadside bombing Friday in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. At least 4,227 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The killing of candidate Hashim al-Husseini highlighted fears that political rivalries will lead to a spike in violence ahead of the Jan. 31 vote for local councils.
Al-Husseini was a member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party and was running on the party’s State of Law list for a seat on the Babil provincial council.
The gunmen opened fire about 4 p.m. in the Jbala area near Hillah, killing the candidate and wounding four of his guards, police spokesman Capt. Muthanna Khalid said.
He said al-Husseini, the head of the area’s municipal council, had spent the afternoon talking to people at a cafe, shaking hands with shop owners at a nearby market and meeting with prominent local figures.
The 55-year-old politician and father of four lost two of his brothers in an attack by Sunni insurgents two years ago.
Fellow candidate Osama al-Khafaji said the party had been concerned about harassment or verbal threats in the run-up to the elections.
“We are afraid that today’s killing will not be the last,” al-Khafaji said.
Police said party members had reported receiving a threat that four candidates from their list would be killed before Friday’s attack.
U.S. and U.N. officials have pinned hopes on Iraq’s first elections in just over three years to help unify the country’s fractured ethnic and sectarian groups and solidify security gains.
Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, and other Shiite cities in the south have been the site of fierce infighting among Shiite militias for years as political groups jockeyed for power in the oil-rich south.
Tensions have been rising as the parties step up their campaigns for seats on the provincial councils.