ARBIL, Iraq: The nephew of the governor of a key province where Iraqi forces are battling the Islamic State group has been gunned down in the country’s north, officials said Saturday.
The shooting in Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil came just hours after Nowfal al-Aqoub, the governor of Nineveh, made controversial remarks about children being fathered by IS fighters in the province.
The killing of Aqoub’s nephew, who was also his personal driver, comes as Iraqi forces prepare for the battle to retake Mosul, the capital of Nineveh and the last city in the country still held by the militants.
Sifuk Watban al-Sultan died of a single gunshot to the head on Friday night near the governor’s house in Arbil, the governor’s secretary told AFP, asking that he not be identified by name.
A Nineveh provincial councillor, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed Sultan’s death, saying that Kurdish security forces had subsequently removed surveillance cameras from the house as part of the investigation.
The motive for the killing was not immediately clear, but it came after Aqoub made remarks at a conference in Baghdad earlier on Friday that were criticised by a political rival.
