Iraq govt aide shot dead

A top aide to Iraq’s finance ministry was gunned down in western Baghdad, police said – one of six people killed or found dead across Iraq today.

Qutaiba Badir al-Din Mohammed, a Sunni adviser to Iraq’s finance minister, died at around 11am when two carloads of gunmen showered his vehicle with bullets in the capital’s al-Jamia neighbourhood, police said. His driver was also killed in the attack, they said.

The finance ministry had no immediate comment about the attack.

Four other people were killed or found dead today – all in the troubled Diyala province north-east of Baghdad. Police said the victims included an Iraqi soldier, a policeman and an eight-year-old child, all killed in separate incidents.

The soldier died when gunmen attacked his patrol in Khalis, a mostly Shiite town 50 miles north of the capital, police said. Three other soldiers were wounded in the attack, they said.