AFP, Baghdad :
A Sunni tribal leader, his son and seven bodyguards were killed in Baghdad, a cousin told AFP Saturday, in an attack that could inflame sectarian tension in Iraq.
Sheikh Qassem Sweidan al-Janabi and most of his bodyguards were shot in the head, while son was killed by a bullet to the chest, said Abu Qusay, speaking from the cemetery where they were buried.
They were killed late Friday when unidentified gunmen attacked a three-vehicle convoy carrying Janabi and his nephew, lawmaker Zeid al-Janabi, late Friday, officials and security sources said earlier.
Janabi was later released but the tribal leader, seen as a moderate Sunni, as well as his son and at least six other people, mostly bodyguards, were killed, they had said.
“Gunmen manning a fake checkpoint stopped the convoy carrying MP Janabi and kidnapped all who were on board,” a senior member of the lawmaker’s staff said.
“They moved them to Sadr City, where they released the MP, then took the others and killed them. Their bodies were found next to Al-Nida’a mosque in northern Baghdad,” he told AFP.
Sadr City is a vast Shiite neighbourhood in the north of the capital from which Iraq’s powerful Shiite militias draw many of their recruits.
Abu Qusay told AFP by telephone that the convoy was ambushed as it made its way to Baghdad from Latifiyah, an area south of the capital.
A Sunni tribal leader, his son and seven bodyguards were killed in Baghdad, a cousin told AFP Saturday, in an attack that could inflame sectarian tension in Iraq.
Sheikh Qassem Sweidan al-Janabi and most of his bodyguards were shot in the head, while son was killed by a bullet to the chest, said Abu Qusay, speaking from the cemetery where they were buried.
They were killed late Friday when unidentified gunmen attacked a three-vehicle convoy carrying Janabi and his nephew, lawmaker Zeid al-Janabi, late Friday, officials and security sources said earlier.
Janabi was later released but the tribal leader, seen as a moderate Sunni, as well as his son and at least six other people, mostly bodyguards, were killed, they had said.
“Gunmen manning a fake checkpoint stopped the convoy carrying MP Janabi and kidnapped all who were on board,” a senior member of the lawmaker’s staff said.
“They moved them to Sadr City, where they released the MP, then took the others and killed them. Their bodies were found next to Al-Nida’a mosque in northern Baghdad,” he told AFP.
Sadr City is a vast Shiite neighbourhood in the north of the capital from which Iraq’s powerful Shiite militias draw many of their recruits.
Abu Qusay told AFP by telephone that the convoy was ambushed as it made its way to Baghdad from Latifiyah, an area south of the capital.
