Iraqi governor found dead
2005-05-31 14:41
Baghdad - The governor of Iraq's restive western province of al-Anbar was found dead on Sunday in a United States-led operation during which seven non-Iraqi Arab fighters were killed or wounded, said an Iraqi official on Tuesday.
Leith Kubba of government said: "On the evening of May 29 multinational forces clashed with armed elements, near the al-Anbar town of Rawa, wounding three of them."
"It turned out they were two Saudis and a Moroccan and when the unit entered a house from which they were being shot at, they discovered the governor's dead body attached to a gas canister and the bodies of two Syrians, a Jordanian and an Algerian."
Nawaf Raja Farhan al-Mahalawi was kidnapped on May 11 as US forces were engaged in a large-scale operation to flush out insurgents in the province.
Rebels with ties to the network of Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed they captured the governor as US forces pressed on with "Operation Matador", during which the Jordanian-born militant was reportedly wounded.
- AFP