Brother of Iraqi vice president shot dead in Baghdad

The Associated Press

BAGHDAD — A brother of one of Iraq’s two vice presidents was gunned down Sunday on hisway to work in Baghdad, while a top Trade Ministry of cial was wounded and two of his bodyguardswere killed in a separate attack.

U.S. troops backed by helicopters and a jet attacked insurgents planning a nighttime ambush near an American base north of Baghdad, killing six militants and wounding and capturing ve, the U.S. command said Sunday.

The surge in violence came as Iraqi political blocs unveiled lists of candidates for Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, which the United States and its coalition partners hope will restore enough stability so they can begin bringing troops home next year. The election commission said it got candidate lists from 21 coalitions and 207 other political parties or individuals.

The U.S. operation against the insurgents occurred Saturday night near Taji, a U.S. air base 12 miles north of Baghdad. Troops saw the militants moving along a canal toward a commonly used ambush site.

The militants red on Apache attack helicopters that were conducting reconnaissance. The helicopters red back, and the insurgents retreated. When they tried to regroup, an Air Force F- 15E jet dropped a 500pound bomb on them. Six insurgents were killed and ve were wounded and captured, the statement said.

A U.S. jet also dropped a bomb north of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, on Saturday night, killing three insurgents planting a roadside bomb, the military said.

Insurgents killed at least nine Iraqis in scattered attacks Sunday, one day after a bomb killed 30 people in a Shiite farming village northeast of the capital.

One of those killed Sunday was a brother to Iraq’s Shiite vice president, of cials said. Ghalib Abdul- Mahdi, brother of Vice President Adil Abdul- Mahdi, was shot to death along with his driver while going to work at the of ce of Prime Minister Ibrahim al- Jaafari, aides said. Adil Abdul- Mahdi is a Shiite, while Vice President Ghazi alYawer is a Sunni.

An Internet statement posted on an extreme Islamist website claimed that al- Qaeda in Iraq had killed Ghalib AbdulMahdi. The statement’s authenticity could not be veri ed.

In another part of Baghdad, four gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying Qais Dawood Hasan, an undersecretary at the Trade Ministry, after it left his of ce in the upscale Mansour neighborhood, police said.

Hasan and six other people were wounded, while two of his guards were killed, said police 1st Lt. Thair Mahmoud and Mohanad Jawad, a doctor at Yarmouk Hospital.