Perilous Times
Iraqi cleric beheaded in insurgent attack
Sunni cleric was stabbed, beheaded and set alight, say police
* Reuters in Baghdad
*
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 September 2010 18.25 BST
Gunmen stormed the house of a Sunni cleric today and cut his head off
before setting him alight in an attack that bore the hallmark of
insurgents, police said.
Jabbar Saleh al-Jibouri was killed shortly before dawn at his house in
a village near Muqdadiya town in Diyala province, police spokesman
Major Ghalib al-Jubouri said. The attack came a day before the start of
the Islamic holiday of Eid.
"The gunmen entered the house, stabbed him, cut his head off and set
him alight," Jubouri said. "Most probably the attack was based on
terrorist motives because it happened in such a horrible way."
An investigating officer, who did not want to be named, said Jibouri,
who was also a medic, used to treat members of the government-backed
"Sahwa" militia.
Insurgents have frequently targeted the Sahwa, Sunni ex-militants who
turned against al-Qaida. The US military credits the Sahwa with helping
to turn the tide of sectarian violence unleashed by the invasion.
Jibouri, who was a relative of a senior member of the Iraqi Islamic
Party, returned with his family to the mainly Sunni neighbourhood three
months ago after being displaced in 2007 by al-Qaida during the height
of the sectarian violence.
Diyala is a mixed province with a Sunni majority located just north of
Baghdad. Jubouri said the imam's neighbourhood was marked by Iraqi
police as one in which sleeper cells operated.
Militants are believed to be trying to exploit the political vacuum
that followed Iraq's inconclusive election in March. More than six
months later, Shia, Sunni and Kurdish political factions remain in
dispute over the formation of a government.
Attacks are on the rise against the Iraqi army and police, who have
taken over responsibility for security in Iraq after the United States
formally ended its combat mission last week.