Killers stalk politicians as Iraq seeks government

Since Iraq's parliamentary elections in March, killers in this violent northern city have stalked members of the Iraqiya Party, which won the most seats, part of a nationwide outbreak of violence directed at officials and other civic leaders. Some 150 politicians, civil servants, tribal chiefs, police officers, Sunni clerics and members of Awakening Councils have been assassinated throughout Iraq since the election–bloodshed apparently aimed at heightening turmoil in the power vacuum created by more than three months without a national government. During the past 72 hours alone, at least eight Iraqi police officers, an Iraqi Army general, a government intelligence official, a member of an Awakening Council, a tribal sheik, and a high ranking staff member of Baghdad's local government have all been assassinated in either Baghdad or Mosul.