FALLUJAH: A militant posing as a construction worker killed a Sunni Iraqi MP and six others yesterday by wrapping his arms around the lawmaker before blowing himself up, as a political row engulfs Iraq.
The killing of Ayfan Saadun Al Essawi comes just two days after Finance Minister Rafa Al Essawi, a fellow Sunni and a member of the same tribe and political bloc, escaped an apparent assassination attempt as his convoy passed near where Tuesday’s attack took place.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Sunni militants often target officials and high-profile individuals in a bid to destabilise the government and push the country back towards the bloodshed that raged from 2005 to 2008.
Essawi’s killing is likely to further enflame tensions, with Iraq already grappling with a political crisis pitting Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki against Essawi’s secular Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc. Essawi, 37, had been inspecting a road being paved south of Fallujah when the attacker, who was dressed as a construction worker, came up to him.
“The moment he stepped out of the car to check out this road between Fallujah and Amriyah, at this moment, there was a man,” said Sohaib Haqi, the lawmaker’s office chief. “He came to him, hugged him, said Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), and blew himself up.”
Fallujah hospital’s Doctor Assem Al Hamdani put the overall death toll at seven dead -Essawi, four of his bodyguards and two civilians. Another six were wounded, including four of the lawmaker’s guards.
Three days of mourning were declared in Anbar province, and the lawmaker’s funeral was expected to be held on Wednesday.
Essawi was also a former leader of the Sahwa, a collection of Sunni tribal militias that turned against Al Qaeda and sided with the US military from late 2006, helping turn the tide of Iraq’s bloody insurgency. He was himself inducted into parliament after another Sunni MP, Khaled Al Fahdawi, was killed in a suicide attack at Baghda’s Umm Al Qura mosque in 2011.AFP
