Attackers opened fire on a group of senior Kurdish figures, killing a political leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and two others, a party military commander said.
According to AP, the commander blamed Islamic extremists from the Ansar al-Islam organization for the late Saturday attack on General Shawkat Haji Mushir, a member of the political leadership of the party, which controls the eastern section of the Kurdish autonomous region of northeast Iraq.
Sheikh Jaffar Mustafa, PUK military commander of the nearby town of Halabja said the three attackers also killed Hekmat Osman, PUK security chief of the Sirwan district, and Sardar Qafoor, military commander of Sirwan district, and three civilians - a man, a woman and a child.
Mohamad Tawfiq, security chief of Halabja was seriously injured, he said.
Mustafa said Mushir had been expecting to receive an Ansar defector at the house at about 10.20pm, when the attack occurred. Instead of defecting, the Ansar member and two other Ansar men opened fire with Kalashnikov semi-automatic weapons and grenades. (Albawaba.com)
