Three Lebanese businesspersons were shot dead and a fourth was wounded in Baghdad on Friday, announced Lebanon's foreign minister, who urged Iraqi authorities to protect foreigners doing business in the country.
Officials identified the dead as Karim Khoury, his wife Evelyn Abdel-Nour and George Badin.
Lebanon's National News Agency said a fourth national, Shukri Nmeir, was seriously injured. The men worked in a food products company in Iraq, the agency added.
The four were apparently shot in Khouri's Baghdad house, which was also robbed, a Foreign Ministry official said.
Foreign Minister Jean Obeid condemned the killings and called on Iraqi authorities to open an investigation.
Meanwhile, Turkish television aired a video Friday claiming that the suspected leader of a Turkish al-Qaeda cell blamed for suicide bombings in Istanbul has been killed in Iraq.
The video showed a body of a bearded man with a bloody face said to be that of Habib Akdas. A man who claimed to be a Turkish activist was heard in the video saying that Akdas was killed in a bombing raid this week in Iraq's Al-Anbar region.
The video, aired by Turkish television channels CNN-Turk and NTV. It was obtained by a Turkish news agency, NTV said. (albawaba.com)
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