Sunni member of Iraqi constitution committee killed

One of the Sunni Arabs appointed to a committee to draft Iraq’s constitution was assassinated today in a drive-by shooting, an Iraqi official said.

Mijbil Issa was gunned down, along with two companions, in the Karradah area of Baghdad, according to Mohammed Abed-Rabbou, a Sunni member of the drafting committee.

Issa was among 15 Sunnis named last month to a committee charged with drafting a new constitution by August 15.

The Sunnis were added in an attempt to reach out to the religious community that provides the heart of the insurgency.

However, two Sunni committee members had already quit because of threats from the insurgents who oppose the US-backed, Shiite dominated government.

The attack occurred as the committee drafting the constitution was holding a meeting at Baghdad’s Convention Centre on the edge of the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to US embassy and Iraqi government offices.

The meeting was immediately adjourned when the head of the commission Humam Hammoudi got the news, said Kurdish member Mahmoud Othman said.