Irag government official gunned down

Gunmen shot and killed a senior official in Iraq’s Transportation Ministry today, police said.

Zoba Yass, director general of the ministry’s projects, and his driver were killed in southern Baghdad as they drove to work, a police officer and officials at the transportation and interior ministries confirmed.

The officials said it wasn’t immediately clear whether the insurgents were in a vehicle or on foot when they opened fire, but that they had escaped from the scene.

Also in Baghdad, police Major General Sabbah Abdul-Hadi said he was accidentally shot and wounded by US troops early today when they returned fire from insurgents in the western neighbourhood of Khadra.

Lying in a hospital bed at Baghdad’s Yarmouk hospital, Abdul-Hadi had two bullet wounds in his right shoulder and one in his face.

“When I saw them coming, I parked on the side of a street, but they still opened fire,” he said.

The US military said it had no immediate information about the reported shooting or that Abdul-Hadi had been wounded.