A prominent Iraqi judge under Saddam Hussein, Taha al-Amiri, was assassinated Saturday by two gunmen in the southern port city of Basra, said Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi. Al-Amiri, a former chief judge at Basra's highest criminal court, is one of several former Baath Party figures assassinated in the Basra area the past 18 months. Suspicion has fallen on Shiite extremists seeking revenge for Saddam's oppression of the majority Shiite community.South of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead a Sunni imam who worked for an endowment that handles funds for mosques. The man's son was also killed in the shooting. Their bodies were found dumped on a highway Thursday, officials said. It wasn't clear if the attack was a reprisal killing by Shiites seeking revenge for insurgent attacks on their community.
| Lemme see: the Sunnis boomed a mosque yesterday, and boomed a hospital today. They boomed schools during the runup to the election. The Shiite "extremists" don't look quite so extreme when they bump off a prominent Baathist. |