Jabbar Saleh al-Jibouri, a Sunni cleric, was killed before dawn in a village in Diyala province.
"The gunmen entered the house, stabbed him, cut his head off and set him alight," a police spokesman told Reuters. "Most probably the attack was based on terrorist motives because it happened in such a horrible way."
An unnamed source said Jibouri, who was also a medic, used to treat members of the government-backed Sahwa militia. Terrorists Insurgents frequently target the Sahwa, former Sunni jihadis who turned against al Qaeda.
Jibouri had recently returned to his old neighborhood after being displaced by al Qaeda in 2007. He was the relative of a senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party. |