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Governor of Baghdad assassinated
Baghdad governor Ali al-Haidri has been shot dead in a roadside ambush in the Iraqi capital, the highest-profile assassination there since May.
Attackers shot at his armoured-plated car from different directions as his convoy drove through northern Baghdad.
Violence has been escalating ahead of elections planned for 30 January.
Reports say a truck caused the blast near the Green Zone, the heavily fortified government and diplomatic compound.
The morning explosion shook the city and plunged the immediate area into an inferno, says BBC correspondent Jim Muir in Baghdad.
Mr Haidri is the most senior Iraqi official to be assassinated in Baghdad since the head of the Governing Council was killed by a suicide bomb in May last year.
At least one of his bodyguards was also killed in the attack, in the Hurriyah district on the west bank of the Tigris river.
Iraqi insurgents have repeatedly targeted government officials around the country.
Mr Haidri escaped assassination in a roadside bomb attack in September.
Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4144511.stm
Baghdad governor Ali al-Haidri has been shot dead in a roadside ambush in the Iraqi capital, the highest-profile assassination there since May.
Attackers shot at his armoured-plated car from different directions as his convoy drove through northern Baghdad.
Violence has been escalating ahead of elections planned for 30 January.
Reports say a truck caused the blast near the Green Zone, the heavily fortified government and diplomatic compound.
The morning explosion shook the city and plunged the immediate area into an inferno, says BBC correspondent Jim Muir in Baghdad.
Mr Haidri is the most senior Iraqi official to be assassinated in Baghdad since the head of the Governing Council was killed by a suicide bomb in May last year.
At least one of his bodyguards was also killed in the attack, in the Hurriyah district on the west bank of the Tigris river.
Iraqi insurgents have repeatedly targeted government officials around the country.
Mr Haidri escaped assassination in a roadside bomb attack in September.
Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4144511.stm