Silencer guns kill 67 in one day in Baghdad

 

By Anwar Jumaa

 

Azzaman, February 23, 2010

 

Last Sunday 67 corpses were brought to Baghdad morgue all shot with silencer guns, medical sources said.

 

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said silencer guns have instilled fear and terror in Baghdad and most of the victims were civil servants, former Baathists and army officers.

 

The latest victim has been a university professor who was shot dead on Monday as he drove home. The sources named the victim as Dr. Thamer Kamel, head of the human rights section at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific research. 

 

Unidentified gunmen with silencers were also reported to have killed another person in al-Qanat area. The gunmen drive in mainly four-wheel vehicles and quickly disappear from the crime scene.

 

Two more people were reported killed, also by silencer guns in Baghdad on Monday.

 

The sources said several neighborhoods of Baghdad were in the grip of silencer gun terror, the fresh type of violence which the country had not see before.

 

The sources said they feared the killings would once again fuel sectarian tensions which had plunged the country into a ruinous and bloody civil war almost two years ago.

 

The police blame organized crime for the killings.

 

But it is difficult to strip the new trend of violence from its political and sectarian motives as it comes only days before Iraqis go to polls to elect a new parliament and government.