Three lawyers gunned down in Iraq’s Nineveh province

Ahmed Qassem

BAGHDAD

Three lawyers were gunned down Tuesday by attackers believed to be linked to the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, according to a local police source.

“Gunmen stopped the car of lawyer Mohamed Ahmad al-Khalidi, who was accompanied at the time by two other lawyers,” Federal Police Captain Mustafa al-Naimi told Anadolu Agency.

“The gunmen then opened fire on the three men, killing them instantly,” al-Naimi said.

According to the police officer, the deadly attack took place on a main road linking the city of Mosul and the Hamam al-Alil district south of Nineveh province (of which Mosul serves as regional capital).

Al-Naimi said the three victims had all been involved in local court cases related to terrorism in general and Daesh in particular.

He believes the attack was carried out by Daesh “sleeper cells” with a view to “sowing fear among those working against terrorism in Nineveh."

As of Tuesday afternoon, however, no group had claimed responsibility for the killings.

Daesh has recently suffered a string of decisive defeats in both Iraq and Syria after overrunning vast swathes of territory in both countries in mid-2014.