Key Iraqi Police Chief Killed

American ally assassinated in precise string of roadside bombs
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 9, 2007 2:17 PM CST
Key Iraqi Police Chief Killed
Qais al-Mamouri, rear left, talks to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, center rear, as they arrive to attend the Iraqi police graduation ceremony in the city of Hillah, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad in this Thursday Aug. 4, 2005 file photo. On Sunday Dec. 9, 2007 a roadside bomb...   (Associated Press)

Qais al-Mamouri, a major US ally respected for his non-sectarian work as police chief in violent Babil province, was killed today by a roadside bomb, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Five successive explosions ripped through al-Mamouri’s US-issued SUV, killing him and two others. Less than an hour earlier a US general had held a press conference to sing al-Mamouri’s praises.

Al-Mamouri, a Shiite, headed operations against both Shiite and Sunni radicals in Babil, making friends with Americans, and enemies in local government. One major Shiite party member told the Monitor he suspected al-Mamouri was killed over those disputes. “He often clashed with the governor,” he said. “They hated each other.” A Babil council member said both al-Qaeda and Shiite militias were suspected. (More Iraq stories.)

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