Iraqi politician killed in latest post-vote attack

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed a member of Iraq's largest Sunni Arab party on Wednesday, police said, the latest in a number of political assassinations following recent local polls that brought a major shift to Iraqi politics.

Samir Safwat, a lawyer who was an official at a local office of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), was shot in his car in Baghdad's Zaafariniya neighbourhood.

Police said Safwat's wife was a candidate in the Jan. 31 provincial election for the IIP, the country's largest Sunni Arab political force since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The IIP called the killing "an attempt to incite sectarian violence anew and silence the (party's) national project." It said three party members had been killed in less than a month.

"The party wonders about the mysterious increase in criminal acts," the IIP said, asking the government to halt such crimes. The IIP, banned under Saddam Hussein's largely secular rule, was one of the major religious parties which appears to have been punished in the provincial vote by Iraqis fed up with what they see as an ineffective political class.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSRAS825440

[florida08]

1. geez

not sure this is democracy. They remind me of the Palestinians and Israelis. Have you noticed a reduction in Iraq news in the MSM lately? Thanks for reminding us.:fistbump:

[sabra]

2. sadly a US soldier is still killed every other day in Iraq

http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

Military Deaths By Year/Month
Period US UK Other Total DayCount Avg
Total 4245 179 139 4563 2163 2.11
2-2009 2-2009 8 1 0 9 18 0.5
1-2009 1-2009 16 0 0 16 31 0.52
12-2008 12-2008 14 2 0 16 31 0.52
11-2008 11-2008 17 0 0 17 30 0.57

[florida08]

3. my goodness

and thanks for the link. I see 24 have passed away just since the new year. Will Afghanistan be better? I honestly don't know and worry about shifting the carnage. But perhaps there IS a plan this time.