Iraqi Shiite parliamentarian assassinated

The announcement made for the beginning of a new US-Iraqi military operation coincided with continued attacks by gunmen and the bloody explosions in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities leaving more Iraqi killing and wounded.

The eldest parliamentarian in the Iraqi National Assembly, Shiite parliamentarian Sheikh Dari al-Fayyad, was killed by a booby trapped car explosion in al-Rashedeyah quarters in the north of Baghdad on Tuesday morning. Also killed were his son and three of his guards.

Al-Qaida organization in Mesopotamia led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawei claimed responsibility in a statement on the Internet for the assassination.

Sheikh al-Fayyad ( 87 year old) a member of the united Iraqi coalition, is the second member of the new Iraqi parliament to be killed. Female parliamentarian Lamei'a Khadouri was killed by bullets near her house in April.

Chairman of the Higher Council For The Islamic Revolution In Iraq,Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, which Sheikh al-Fayyadh is a member in, deplored his assassination and described the attack as a cowardly act.