Iraqi Sunni politician killed in latest post-vote attack
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 18 February 2009 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Iraqi Sunni politician killed in latest post-vote attack, 18 February 2009, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/499e98e528.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
February 18, 2009
The January vote in Iraq took place peacefully but violence followed
BAGHDAD (Reuters) Gunmen have killed a member of Iraq's largest Sunni Arab party, police said, the latest in a number of political assassinations following recent local polls that brought a major shift to Iraqi politics.
Samir Safwat, a lawyer who was an official at a local office of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), was shot in his car in Baghdad's Zaafariniya neighborhood.
Police said Safwat's wife was a candidate in the January 31 provincial election for the IIP, the country's largest Sunni Arab political force since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The IIP called the killing "an attempt to incite sectarian violence anew and silence the [party's] national project." It said three party members had been killed in less than a month.
"The party wonders about the mysterious increase in criminal acts," the IIP said, asking the government to halt such crimes.
The IIP, banned under Saddam Hussein's largely secular rule, was one of the major religious parties that appears to have been punished in the provincial vote by Iraqis fed up with what they see as an ineffective political class.
The fact the election was held without major violence was widely hailed as a signal that Iraq may be ready to put behind it the sectarian and insurgent bloodshed of the last six years.
But at least three politicians have been killed since then and another six have been wounded, attacked, or kidnapped.
Most of the attacks have taken place in Mosul, a violent northern city that is still the most dangerous corner of Iraq and that is seen as a stronghold for Sunni Islamist Al-Qaeda.
Attacks have also taken place in the southern Shi'ite city of Al-Basrah. The victims have been from several parties.
Final results of the ballot to pick councils in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces will be announced on February 19, and the new provincial councils will choose powerful governors within weeks.
The vote was seen as a win for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who emphasized a law-and-order message, and who many Iraqis credited for the sharp drop in violence in the past year.
The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the country's biggest Shi'ite religious group, did poorly.
The IIP's influence was eaten away in western Al-Anbar province, a Sunni stronghold, where secularists and tribal leaders made gains. But the party came first in both the Sunni province of Salah Al-Din and ethnically mixed Diyala.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
