Three Sunni members shot dead in front of mosque

Gunmen seized three members of Iraq’s largest Sunni Muslim party today and shot them dead hours later in front of a mosque in Mosul, an official of the party and witnesses said.

The three were kidnapped early today in the city’s southern neighbourhood of New Mosul, said Nouredine al-Hayali of the Iraqi Islamic Party. They were later shot dead in Mosul’s northern neighbourhood of Nour.

Witnesses said masked gunmen blocked a major road in front of Dhi al-Nourein Mosque, then brought the three out of cars. They forced them to stand against a wall, sprayed them with gunfire and fled. The bodies were left behind.

The Iraqi Islamic Party has been urging Sunni Muslims in recent weeks to register to vote in an October referendum on the new constitution and to take part in general elections planned for December 15. Many Sunni Muslims boycotted the January 30 elections following threats by insurgents and calls by clerics not to do so.

Insurgents have threatened people against voting in the two planned elections.

Yesterday, masked gunmen burst into the Sunni grand mosque in the tense city of Ramadi as religious, political, and tribal leaders met to discuss possible Sunni participation in the constitutional process.

The gunmen asked participants to end their meeting and then opened fire on them, said Omar Seri, secretary of the governor of Anbar province.

Three members of the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars and a bodyguard were injured, Seri said.