BAGHDAD: The head of Iraq’s biggest Sunni Muslim parliamentary bloc was killed at a mosque yesterday, officials said, an assassination which could undermine efforts for sectarian reconciliation in Iraq.
Recently picked as leader of the Accordance Front, Harith Al-Obaidi was seen as a moderate able to make peace among the bloc’s groups and also with Shiites, Kurds and others who have struggled for power since the 2003 US invasion.
An independent lawmaker and member of Parliament’s human rights committee, he was also seen as a leading defender of the rights of Iraqi prisoners.
His killing comes as parties hold talks to form alliances ahead of parliamentary elections which are due in January and seen as a key test of whether Iraq’s feuding factions can live in peace after the sectarian bloodshed triggered by the war. Al-Obaidi was leaving a mosque in west Baghdad after Friday prayers when he was killed. “He was at a mosque. An armed man shot him with a pistol, then threw a grenade at him inside the Al-Shawaf Mosque,” said Saleem Al-Jubouri, a spokesman for the Accordance Front.
“It could be Al-Qaeda behind this or another armed group. This shows that the security situation is still fragile and dangerous. The government must provide more security,” Al-Jubouri added.
Police said six people were killed in the attack, including the assailant. They said the assassin, believed to be a teenager, shot Al-Obaidi twice in the head before opening fire on worshippers at the mosque and throwing a grenade. He was then killed by mosque guards.
“Assassinations of political leaders have a huge effect on national peace, and these acts are meant to stoke renewed sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shiites, and also within feuding factions among the Sunnis,” said Hazim Al-Nuaimi, a political analyst at Baghdad University.
He predicted Al-Obaidi’s death would cause splits within the Accordance Front, which has over 30 seats in Iraq’s 275-member Parliament. Although small compared to Shiite and Kurdish blocs, the Accordance Front did well in this year’s local elections.
