Preparations began yesterday for the burial of an Iraqi lawmaker who was who was gunned down outside his home, the first such killing since polls more than two months ago.
Iraqi security forces arrested one man in connection with the assassination of Bashar Hamid Agaidi, who was ambushed outside his home in the main northern city of Mosul and died of his wounds in hospital. Agaidi was a member of parliament (MP) from former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi’s bloc.
Agaidi’s family members prepared to bury the 32-year-old in al-Baeij, 30km south of Mosul.
“Gunmen set up an ambush for MP Bashar Hamid Agaidi outside his house in the Amil neighborhood and opened fire when he got home,” a police officer said, adding the lawmaker was rushed to hospital in “serious condition.”
Dr Fares al-Obeidi confirmed that Agaidi died of his wounds. Obeidi said Agaidi suffered gunshots to the head and chest. Intisar Allawi, a fellow MP and senior Iraqiya member, confirmed Agaidi’s death.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh condemned the killing, telling al-Arabiya satellite television that “this was a criminal act against an important symbol who had just been elected.”
Agaidi’s death is the first assassination of an MP since the March 7 parliamentary elections in which Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats in Iraq’s 325-member Council of Representatives.
The father of two studied computer science at Mosul University and had been active in student politics, becoming president of the students’ union.
He ran in provincial elections last year under the Sunni Arab al-Hadbaa bloc of Osama al-Nujaifi, but failed to win a seat. Al-Hadbaa is now part of Iraqiya.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law alliance came second with 89 seats and the Iraqi National Alliance, led by Shiite religious groups, came third with 70.
The latter two groups announced earlier this month they would band together, leaving them just four seats short of a parliamentary majority, although Kurdish MPs are likely to ally with the newly formed coalition.
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