Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A Sunni imam in Baghdad, known for his criticism of Al Qaeda and the so-called resistance groups in Iraq, was killed in an attack on October 9. Humdai Jamal was driving his car when the vehicle was blown up by a bomb placed by unknown persons in the car. The cleric had just finished the Friday sermon at Saqlawiyah, 75 km north-east of Baghdad. Police said that two other people in the car were wounded in the attack.
The imam is known for its criticism against Sunni extremists and Al Qaeda and his sermons in which he asked the faithful not to succumb to sectarian violence that paralyzes the country.
This is the second assassination in recent days of religious figures in Iraq. Last week, Bashir al-Juheishi, the Sunni imam in Mosul, was killed in an attack with the very same dynamics as the one unleashed on Humdai. Al-Juheishi was also known for his positions against Al Qaeda deeply rooted in the northern Iraq city.
Major Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman of the armed forces, stresses that the recent assassinations demonstrate the extremist’s new strategy. The military says that a new generation of “small adhesives cans" are claiming numerous victims on the streets of Iraq. The weapons are "easily applied to cars and buses to target individuals. Al-Moussawi said that these bombs are easily handled even by women and children whom extremists recruit because they are less exposed to checks and searches.