BAGHDAD, Nov 23: Gunmen in 10 army-type vehicles on Wednesday shot dead a Sunni tribal chief and four relatives in a pre-dawn raid in Baghdad. The gunmen, dressed as Iraqi soldiers, broke into the home of Sheikh Fadel Sarhid Ali and killed the tribal leader, three of his sons and a son-in-law before escaping, said police.

That attack was followed shortly afterwards by the assassination of a high-ranking official in the ministry of industry, Radi Ismail Jawad, and the former chief of traffic police, General Mahdi Kassem — both in Baghdad.

Leaders from all religious and political affiliations have been regularly targeted by death squads in the strife following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government.—AFP