Monday, October 09, 2006
Vice-president's brother killed
Politics, Security
The brother of the Sunni Iraqi vice-president has been killed in his Baghdad home. General Amir al-Hashimi, brother of Tariq al-Hashimi, and an adviser in the defence ministry, was killed on Monday by unidentified gunmen wearing military uniforms in his home in north Baghdad, Brigadier Qassim al-Moussawi, the government spokesman said.
COMMENT: Hashimi heads the Iraqi Islamic Party, which operates under the umbrella of the Iraqi Accord Front—the first major alliance established within the Sunni Arab community. He is loosely associated with Egypt's fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood and his party was the sole Sunni group to participate in the January 2005 elections. Hashimi strongly opposes autonomous regions in Iraq, supports removing Shiite militiamen from security forces, and undoing the purging of former Baathists. It is likely that Hashimi's brother was murdered by a Shia militia as a warning to him. The murder could have a destabilising effect on political negotiations as Hashimi is likely to blame Shia parties, in particular those with militias such as al-Sadr's party and SCIRI. COMMENT ENDS.
