BAGHDAD, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Unidentified gunmen on Monday shot dead a senior official of one of the leading soccer clubs of the Iraqi premier league, along with four of his family members, a police source said.
Colonel Basheer al-Hamdani, administrative director of al-Jawiyah (Air Force) soccer club, was killed with his wife and three of his sons when unknown armed men stormed Hamdani's house in the early morning in Mansour neighborhood in the western part of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and opened fire on the family, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The gunmen also stole some money and property from the house before they fled the scene, the source said.
Iraqi security forces cordoned off the scene and launched an investigation into the incident, the source said.
Terrorist acts, violence and armed conflicts killed 411 Iraqis and wounded 294 others in June across Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said.
Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the U.S. that invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003, under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the country.
The war led to the ouster and eventual execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but no such weapons have been found.
