Terrorist Al-Qaeda Front Group Claims Assassination of Iraq’s Sunni MP

Al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq has claimed a wave of violence in the past week that killed at least 88 people, including a Sunni MP who was assassinated by a suicide bomber, a statement said.

In a statement distributed by the al-Fajr Media Center and posted on the Iraqiyoon website on January 18, The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) claimed the “cutting of the head” of Ayfan al-Essawi, AFP reported.

“God helped the mujahedeen tear him away from his followers, and send him with the former Sahwa sheikhs,” the group said, referring to Essawi’s past as a former leader of the Sahwa, or anti-Qaeda Sunni militia.

The statement also claimed responsibility for a series of invasions and promised to publish details of the attacks in a further statement.

“The military and security units of the Islamic State of Iraq launched a third blessed wave by striking several criminal strongholds in different areas of Iraq in a well-coordinated way,” the statement said.

The three days of violence, from January 15 to 17, left 88 people dead in a series of attacks that targeted all of Iraq’s major sects and ethnic groups, including 33 people who were killed in twin car bombs.