Unknown gunmen in Baghdad assassinate colonel in Iraq's intelligence service

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A ranking officer in the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) was killed after unknown gunmen opened fire on him in Baghdad on Monday, raising fears of targeted assassinations that continue in the central and southern provinces of the embattled Middle Eastern nation.

Security sources told Kurdistan 24 that the officer, Colonel Nibras Farman Shaaban, had until recently served as the Director of Intelligence for the eastern administrative half of the capital known as Rusafa, which encompasses the neighborhood of Balidiyat, where the incident occurred. 

According to a statement released by INIS, he was transferred roughly one month ago to its Financial Supervisory Authority, specializing in monitoring petty cash, the budget, and cases of financial corruption, but did not state whether or not the agency saw this as a factor that led his death.

Shaaban's assailants were reportedly waiting in an SUV and opened fire as he got out of his vehicle from 10 meters away.

Recently, Iranian-backed militias of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have started publishing the names of some intelligence officers through websites and television channels they control, with the apparent aim of inspiring violence against them.

In March, another INIS intelligence officer was also shot to death in central Baghdad's Mansour district. During the previous month, its Deputy Director of Intelligence was the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt in the south of the city.

These assassinations come within the ranks of the Iraqi security forces following dozens of assassinations that targeted Iraqi activists in the country, despite promises to bring the perpetrators to justice by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who headed INIS from 2016 until taking his current post in 2020.

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Shaaban was one of the more prominent officers in INIS, which announced that Iraq's Joint Operations Command had convened a special committee to investigate his murder.

Editing by John J. Catherine