- MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) --
Gunmen shot dead a prominent Iraqi judge outside his home in the northern
city of Mosul on Tuesday, a day after another judge was kidnapped and killed
in the south of the country, police said.
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- A witness said a car with tinted windows suddenly pulled
up outside the home of Ismail Youssef, a judge in Mosul's appeals court,
at about 7:45 a.m. (12:45 a.m. EST) and men got out and shot him several
times in the chest and side, police said.
-
- The 60-year-old judge's family said they did not know
why he had been attacked. Some judges with links to ousted president Saddam
Hussein's Baath party were fired after the U.S.-led war, but Youssef remained
on the judge's bench.
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- "He was a good and honest man. He wasn't a member
of any political party," his brother-in-law Tarik Moussa said.
-
- A lawyer who worked with Youssef said he had not been
involved in investigations into former Baath party leaders.
-
- On Monday, a senior judge in the southern city of Najaf
was kidnapped and killed by what his deputy said were gunmen carrying out
the orders of Saddam.
-
- Aref Aziz said he was kidnapped along with Mohan Jaber
al-Shoueili on Monday. Aziz said he was released after Shoueili was shot
dead.
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- "The gunmen said they were carrying out a judgment
from Saddam," Aziz told Reuters.
-
- Police in Najaf, a holy Shi'ite city, said they were
investigating the killing of Shoueili, who had been leading probes into
several local officials who served under Saddam.
-
- Anti-American guerrillas target Iraqis working with the
country's U.S.-led administration as well as occupying troops.
-
- In September, one of the 25 members of the U.S.-appointed
Iraqi Governing Council was assassinated, and regional officials and Iraqi
police have also been killed in attacks.
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- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3750277
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