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BAGHDAD, March 7: One of the highest-ranking generals in Iraq’s new, US-trained army was shot dead in Baghdad on Monday. Major General Mubdar Hatim al Dulaimi, commander of all Iraqi forces in the capital, was killed by a sniper, police sources said. He was shot as he drove through western Baghdad.
As the commander of the 6th Division, among the first and biggest of Iraq’s new army divisions formed by US forces as part of their plans for eventual withdrawal, Gen Dulaimi was among the most prominent officers in Iraq’s security forces.
His troops have been in the front line of efforts for the past two weeks to prevent further sectarian bloodshed in the wake of an attack on a major shrine.
Iraqi leaders are concerned that further violence between Iraq’s Sunni and Shia communities could spark civil war.
The US commander in Iraq, Gen George Casey, said in a statement: “This tragic incident will neither impede the 6th Iraqi Army Division from continuing its mission of securing Baghdad nor derail the formation of the government of Iraq.”
The U.S. military said in a statement: “Mubdar had been visiting his soldiers in Kadimiyah and was returning to his headquarters when his convoy came under small arms fire attack.”
8 POLICEMEN KILLED: A spate of attacks in Iraq, including seven car bombs, on Tuesday killed 13 people, among them eight policemen, and wounded 35.
In one incident, gunmen killed three people in an office of radical Shia leader Moqtada Sadr in Baquba, while a shrine in Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit was blown up. Three mortar rounds also hit the Baghdad headquarters of the Sunni National Dialogue Front, but caused no injuries.
A new video was broadcast showing three of four peace activists held hostage since November. The three looked to be in good health, but the fourth, an American, was not shown.
“We do not know what to make of Tom Fox’s absence,” their organisation, Christian Peacemaker Teams, said in a statement.—Reuters/AFP
