Ambush Kills Iraqi Ministry Official

Assailants killed an Iraqi deputy foreign minister in an ambush today as he was going to work, his office said.

Gunmen shot Bassam Salih Kubba in Baghdad’s Adhamiya district, a Sunni Muslim neighborhood where support for Saddam Hussein’s regime has been strong. He died later of his wounds, said Thamir Adhami, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Kubba was one of several deputy foreign ministers. He was the ministry’s most senior career diplomat. He had also served as the acting chief of the Iraqi mission to the United Nations in New York and as the Iraqi ambassador to China.

The attack was the second on a member of the interim government in the last four days. On Wednesday, the deputy health minister, Ammar Safar, survived an attack by gunmen in Adhamiya while he was on his way to work.