The governor of the Shi'ite southern Iraqi province of al-Muthana died in a roadside bombing that targeted his convoy on Monday, officials in the province said. Governor Mohammed Ali al-Hassani was on his way from Rumaitha to Samawa, the provincial capital, when his convoy was attacked, they said, according to Reuters. At least five of his bodyguards were injured. Three other people were killed, a police officer said, according to the AP.
Hassani is the second Shi'ite governor killed this month. Hassani, 52, was from a prominent clan in the area and had been governor for about two years despite several attempts by rivals in the provincial council to sack him.
He was a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), the biggest Shi'ite party in Iraq, whose armed wing, the Badr organization, has been in conflict with the Mehdi Army of the Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Diwaniya governor Khalil Jalil Hamza, who was also a member of SIIC, was killed along with the province's police chief earlier this month. A vehicle curfew was imposed on Samawa shortly after Monday's attack.
