Faruq Zarzur al-Juburi, a candidate loyal to Vice President Ayad Allawi, was shot dead by gunmen at his home near Mosul, the former IS bastion in northern Iraq, a local official said. In a statement on the messaging app Telegram, the jihadist group said Juburi was killed because he was “an atheist”. Local official Salah al-Juburi said the gunmen killed the candidate at his home in the town of Qayyarah, 70 kilometres (43 miles) south of Mosul, after storming his house. Sunni extremists like IS, and Al-Qaeda before it, have long targeted Shiites in Iraq. The May 12 polls are the first to be held since Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the jihadists in December.

Source: The Guardian May 07, 2018 10:18 UTC