Iraqi deputy governor kidnapped

Gunmen kidnapped the deputy governor of Iraq’s Anbar province today in the latest assault on officials connected to the interim government, the Interior Ministry said.

Gunmen opened fire on Bassil Ahmed’s car and seized him after the vehicle stopped, said Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdel Rahman.

Ahmed’s son was injured during the shooting in Anbar, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents.

In Baghdad, gunmen killed the assistant director of the Interior Ministry’s criminal investigation department early today after opening fire on his car as he headed to work, Rahman said.

Colonel Ismail al-Ayal was ambushed near his home in the city’s western Ghazaliya district, Rahman said.