Gunmen killed a third candidate on Saturday from the Sunni-backed coalition that won the most seats in Iraq’s March parliamentary election, a slaying that the alliance said was part of a politically motivated campaign of assassinations.
Gunmen broke into Faris Jassim al-Jubouri’s house in a village about 20 miles west of the northern city of Mosul at dawn and shot him multiple times, according to the police and a morgue official.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the killing.
“This assassination is part of series of assassinations targeting members of the Iraqiya list, definitely for political reasons,” said party spokeswoman Maysoun Damlouji.
“The Iraqiya list does not want to escalate the situation, but we won’t sit silent over the killing of any Iraqi,” he added.
The secular Iraqiya coalition, headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, has been at the centre of a political showdown over the March 7 parliamentary election, which did not produce a clear winner.
Iraqiya’s rivals in two religious Shia political blocs are trying to outmaneuver it to form the next government. Iraqiya won just two more parliamentary seats than its closest rivals, led by Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki.
Iraqiya’s slim lead was largely thanks to Mr Allawi’s outreach to Iraq’s disaffected Sunni minority, which lost its political dominance with Saddam Hussein’s 2003 ouster.
If they are left out of the next government, Sunnis could feel further alienated and violence directed at the government and security forces could increase, just as US forces are preparing for substantial troop withdrawals.
Al-Jubouri had not been expected to take a seat in the new Parliament. —AP