3rd Iraqi candidate from Sunni-backed party killed

Gunmen killed a third candidate from the Sunni-backed coalition that won the most seats in Iraq's March parliamentary election, a slaying the alliance said Saturday was part of a politically motivated campaign of assassinations. Faris Jassim al-Jubouri's attackers came to his home outside Mosul in the middle of the night dressed in army uniforms, according to brother Marwan Jassim, a police officer who was there at the time. He said they demanded details about al-Jubouri, then found him sleeping on the roof to escape the heat, shot him three times, and fled. Police and morgue officials confirmed the killing. Al-Jubouri had run on the secularist Iraqiya list. "This killing is part of series of assassinations targeting members of the Iraqiya list, definitely for political reasons," said party spokeswoman Maysoun Damlouji. "The Iraqiya list does not want to escalate the situation, but we won't sit silent over the killing of any Iraqi." The Iraqiya coalition, headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, has been at the center of a political showdown since Iraq's inconclusive parliamentary election on March 7.