A senior Iranian diplomat was shot and killed as he was driving to Tehran’s diplomatic mission in Baghdad today, an Iraqi policeman who guards the mission said. The victim was killed on a side road near the embassy by unknown assailants traveling in another car, said the guard, First Lt. Meqdam al-Azawi. The Iranian foreign ministry said the diplomat, Khalil Naimi, was the mission’s first secretary. The killing could complicate the mission of an Iranian government delegation that is in Iraq trying to mediate the standoff between American troops and a rebel Shiite cleric. The delegation, which arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday, traveled today to the southern town of Najaf where the cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, has been holed up. Mr. Naimi was apparently not a member of the Iranian negotiating team, and it was unclear whether the killing was related to the delegation’s visit. Full Story
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