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WORLD BRIEFING / IRAQ

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Times Wire Reports

Gunmen killed the coach of Iraq’s national karate team in Mosul, underscoring the dangers facing the northern city less than two weeks before a deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from urban areas.

Izzat Abdullah, 45, a Sunni, was attacked near his house in an eastern section of Mosul, according to police and sports officials.

A spokesman for the National Olympic Committee, Saif Maliki, said Abdullah also trained youths. Abdullah moved to Mosul from Baghdad after the United States-led ouster of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, Maliki said.

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Iraqi sports figures have frequently been targets for kidnapping or killing.

The attacks have become less frequent with security gains in the last two years, but insurgents remain active in Mosul, which the U.S. military has dubbed the last urban stronghold of the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq.

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