AMMAN — Nine Iraqi athletes, officials and members of their families are receiving medical treatment at a private hospital in Amman following a poisoning incident inside Iraq recently, the Iraqi ambassador Saad Hayyani said yesterday.
One of the admitted children died at hospital on Monday, Hayyani said.
“The incident took place 10 days ago in Baghdad when the athletes (from a local team) and their managers were celebrating an athletic achievement with their families,” he said.
Hayyani said that all indications pointed to an attempt on the victims’ lives by adding poison to a cake they had.
“They are recovering and in good condition,” the Iraqi diplomat said, adding that he did not know when they would be discharged.
Athletes and sports officials have been targets of threats, kidnappings and assassination in Iraq since the ouster of the former Iraqi regime of executed President Saddam Hussein in 2003.
In 2006, a total of 15 athletes of an Iraqi taekwondo team were abducted while they were on their way to a training camp in Jordan.
The remains of 13 of them were found in an area in West Iraq in June 2007.
