Senior Sunni Cleric Killed in Mosul

22/11/2004| IslamWeb

A senior Sunni Muslim cleric has been killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul, medical sources say. Assailants in a vehicle shot Shaikh Faidh Muhammad Amin al-Faidhi as he was leaving a place of worship in Mosul's al-Rifaq district at about 9am (0600 GMT) on Monday. "The cleric was shot four times, in his chest and abdomen, and died shortly after he was transferred to hospital," said Abd al-Jabbar Muhammad, a doctor at Madinat al-Tib hospital. The cleric was a member of influential Iraqi Muslim body the Association of Muslim Scholars, and the brother of the organisation's spokesman in Baghdad, Muhammad Bashar al-Faidhi. **Bodies found*** Also on Mosul, four bodies, at least three of them Iraqi soldiers, were found in the past 24 hours by the US military, a US army officer said on Monday. "We found them at 2300 (2000GMT on Sunday), they had been dead for at least a couple of hours and their bodies set against the sidewalk, shot in the head and hands tied," Lieutenant Colonel Michael Kurilla told reporters, adding that three of them were confirmed as being Iraqi soldiers. The bodies were found near the al-Yarmuk roundabout, and brought to 15 the number of Iraqi soldiers thought to have been executed by fighters in Iraq's third largest city over the past two days. **Iraqi police attacked*** In a separate development, an Iraqi national guardsman was injured in an attack by armed fighters targeting a joint checkpoint of US forces and Iraqi forces on al-Dhuluaiya bridge south of Tikrit city, sources told Aljazeera. Also in Tikrit, the purported al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad group distributed leaflets in al-Toz suburb, east of the city, calling on Iraqi national guardsmen and government departments in the area to refrain from going to work. Meanwhile, US forces arrested five Iraqi policemen and confiscated their weapons at a checkpoint in Ishaqi district south of Tikrit. **PHOTO CAPTION*** An Iraqi man raises his hands in front of the Iraqi flag during traditional Friday prayers at the Um al-Qura Mosque, a Sunni Muslim mosque on the outskirts of Baghdad, Friday, Nov. 12, 2004. (AP)