Baghdad - An Iraqi provincial governor stopped all work in
his office on Monday until an inquiry is conducted into the killing
of his son and nephew by US troops, while an Iraqi lawmaker blamed an
attack in which his Baghdad home was blown up on 'sectarian killers.'
US troops killed Sunday the son and the nephew of the governor of
the northern Iraqi province of Salahaddin, Hamad Mahmoud.
According to the provincial authorities, US forces raided the
house of Mahmoud's sister-in-law in Bayji, 240 kilometres north of
Baghdad, and killed the governor's son and his nephew.
But the US military said its troops were conducting a search
operation for an al-Qaeda suspect in a house in Bayji and found two
armed men.
The troops killed the men in self-defence, the military said.
In Baghdad, armed men blew up the house of Iraqi lawmaker
Mithal al-Alusy. There were no fatalities in the explosion, as the
house was empty at the time, but it was extensively damaged, security
sources said.
The Sunni Muslim lawmaker, who leads the secular Iraqi Nation
Party, accused 'sectarian killers' of carrying out the attack.
Al-Alusy courted controversy when he visited Israel in 2004 while
a member of the then interim Governing Council, which prompted the
council to remove him from his post.
The lawmaker has escaped several assassination attempts, including
one in which his two sons were killed four years ago. He has lived in
Baghdad's fortified Green Zone ever since.
Separately, attackers assassinated a clan chief, Abdel-Ghafar
Abdullah, while he was on his way to a national reconciliation
meeting in Baquba in the restive Diyala province, security sources
told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Also in Diyala, two police volunteers from the so-called Awakening
Councils were killed and four were injured when gunmen attacked a
council centre in a village in the province.
The Awakening Councils are US-backed tribal police units formed to
fight al-Qaeda militants in Iraq.
USA
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