Senior Arab politician gunned down in Iraq's Kirkuk

The most senior Arab member of the Kirkuk provincial council was gunned down Tuesday in the northern Iraqi city, officials said, a killing likely to stoke tensions in the province.

Gunmen sprayed Mohammed Khalil al-Juburi's car with bullets in central Kirkuk, the provincial capital, killing him and wounding his wife, a police colonel said.

Khalid al-Mufraji, a member of the Iraqi federal parliament, also confirmed Juburi's death and the wounding of his wife.

Oil-rich Kirkuk is claimed by Iraq's three-province autonomous Kurdish region, which currently holds a large part of the province, and by the federal government in Baghdad.

Federal forces were deployed in Kirkuk until June 2014, when they abandoned their positions when faced with an offensive by the Islamic State jihadist group that overran large parts of the country.

Kurdish forces have since battled the jihadists in Kirkuk, but IS still controls territory in the southwest of the province.
Source: AFP