Iraqi education official killed
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-13 15:18

Gunmen killed the Education Ministry's cultural affairs officer Sunday, the second attack on an Iraqi official in as many days, authorities said.

Kamal al-Jarah, 63, was ambushed outside his home as he was leaving for work at about 7:30 a.m. The attack happened in a predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood of northwest Baghdad where support for Saddam Hussein's regime had been strong.

U.S. convoys have often come under attack in the neighborhood of Ghazaliya.

The official died of his wounds at the Yarmouk Hospital, said Abdul Khaliq al-Amri, a ministry official.

Al-Jarah was mainly responsible for dealing with exchange programs and relations with foreign countries and UNESCO. He had worked in the education field for 40 years, al-Amri said.

The attack came only one day after gunmen killed a deputy foreign minister as he went to work. Bassam Salih Kubba was Iraq's most senior career diplomat.

The attack on Kubba, a Sunni, was the second assassination of a senior Iraqi figure in the past month. The head of the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, was killed in a suicide car-bombing May 17.