Ireland to host Iraqis ahead of Olympics

A NUMBER of Iraqi boxers and rowers will prepare for the Beijing Olympics in Ireland to escape fatal attacks on athletes in their war-torn country.

The coach of Iraq’s tennis team and two players were shot dead in the al-Saidiya district of Baghdad on Thursday, apparently for ignoring a dissident warning forbidding them to wear shorts.

Members of the country’s Tae Kwon Do team were kidnapped between Ramadi and Fallujah last week.

Over the weekend the chairman of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, Ahmed al-Hejea, and dozens of his colleagues were kidnapped by armed gunman wearing police uniforms.

Olympics Council of Ireland president Pat Hickey was due to meet with al-Hejea in Kuwait today and is sticking to plans to fly to the region despite his counterpart’s disappearance.