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December 1, 2005
Iraq: Sunni Islamic Party Cleric Murdered
News from IOL states that for a second time this week a member of the Islamic party has been found murdered.
29 year old Sheilk Nuzad Hama Tawfiq, who was an imam at a mosque in Kirkuk, was kidnapped on Monday near his mosque by unknown assailants.
A spokesman for the Islamic party, of which Sheikh Tawfiq was a member, said that the cleric's body had been riddled with bullets. There signs that he had been tortured.
His body was discovered in the east of the city, in an ethnically mixed area.
Another Islamic Party official had been found shot on Monday. Ayad al-Ezzi had been standing as a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. He had been kidnapped three days before.
Sunnis comprise 20% of the population, even though they had more benefits than most under Saddam Hussein. They have decided to be apart of the electoral procedure only recently. They boycotted the vote in January for an interim government, and in August some Sunni activists were threatening to kill voters, but during the constitutional referendum on October 15, Sunni Arabs were fairly well represented.
Recently, several Sunni and Arab figures from the religious and political spheres have been targeted in the pre-election period.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 1, 2005 3:50 PM
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