Iraqi council member assassinated

An Iraqi council member running for governor in the southern port city of Basra was killed as he left for work today, along with his driver and bodyguard.

Hazim al-Aynachi was pulling out of his driveway when gunmen opened fire on his car. Another person was injured, said council head Abdul Bari Faiyek.

Faiyek blamed the killing on opposition to elections for a local governor which were due to be held today, but were delayed in response to the shooting.

“Many threats have been directed to the eight council members nominated to the post,” Faiyek said, adding that another councilman escaped an assassination attempt yesterday.

The shooting was the latest salvo by insurgents determined to undermine the country’s post war reconstruction.

Yesterday a fuel tanker rigged as a massive bomb was driven at a Baghdad police station and exploded, killing nine people, wounding 60, and levelling a huge section of an industrial neighbourhood.

The suicide bombing was the fourth in a string of deadly attacks on police and government facilities in the last five days.

Since the new government took power on June 28, at least 75 people have been killed in militant attacks.

The explosion collapsed the roofs of car repair shops, destroyed electrical workshops and crushed cars under concrete and bricks.

In the holy city of Najaf, Iraqi police discovered a weapons cache including 230 rockets and 200 mortar shells, police chief Brigadier Hussein Mohammed said.

Police also arrested suspected oil smugglers breaching an oil pipeline that connects the southern and northern oil fields, in Bahr al Najaf, 31 miles west of Najaf city.