Female Iraqi candidate shot dead

A woman candidate for the March 7 Iraqi general election has been shot dead in the northern city of Mosul.

Suha Abdul Jarallah, a 36-year-old Sunni who was on the list of pro-Western former prime minister Iyad Allawi, was assassinated as she left a relative’s house in the Ras al-Jadda neighborhood in central Mosul, 350 kilometers north of Baghdad.

The gunman then fled in a car with two other men, the police said.

Intissar Allawi, a relative of Iyad Allawi, said Jarallah’s killing was politically motivated. “These are independent and national people who are targeted to prevent them from standing in the general election,” she stated.

Campaigning for the delayed poll is set to begin on February 12. The election was originally scheduled to be held in January.

Allawi was provisionally appointed premier by Washington in June 2004 and held the post for just under a year.