Yesterday Kubba was killed; today, Kamal al-Jarah, the Education Ministry’s cultural affairs officer. Clearly the radical Muslims in Iraq are very, very nervous that republican government might actually succeed there. And it’s easy to see why, of course; a successful republic could completely turn the tide in the Middle East, and end the radicals’ political and spiritual ascendancy. From AP:
Al-Jarah was mainly responsible for dealing with exchange programs and relations with foreign countries and UNESCO. He had worked in the education field for 40 years, al-Amri said.
The attack came only one day after gunmen killed a deputy foreign minister as he went to work. Bassam Salih Kubba was Iraq’s most senior career diplomat.
The attack on Kubba, a Sunni, was the second assassination of a senior Iraqi figure in the past month. The head of the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, was killed in a suicide car-bombing May 17.