lennart
18-05-03, 16:36
Saddam's praise singer shot dead
May 18 2003 at 04:48PM
Baghdad - A famous Iraqi singer who used to glorify deposed president Saddam Hussein was assassinated by unidentified armed men in his Baghdad home, neighbours told reporters on Sunday.
"I saw three people driving in a pickup truck around the neighbourhood at 6.30pm (14h30 GMT) Saturday. At 6.45pm, one of them came to the gate of the garden where Daoud al-Qaissi was standing and started talking to him," Samir Doush said.
"He was joined by an accomplice who fired at Qaissi's head. The bullet pierced through the glass of the house," he said, adding that the three then sped away.
Qaissi, who was in his fifties, headed the union of Iraqi artists, and had mobilised singers, poets, actors and painters during the US-led war on Iraq to sing the praises of the Baath regime and the army.
After the war which led to Saddam's ouster on April 9, "we advised him to leave the house, but he refused, saying he would die some day anyway, whether here or somewhere else," Doush said.
In another incident demonstrating the lawlessness into which Baghdad has descended, the deputy dean of the science faculty at Baghdad's Mustansiriyah University was recently shot dead by students, a Kurdish official told reporters.
"Falah Dulaimi was shot dead because he harassed female students," said Adel Murad of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
A US official in Baghdad confirmed the murder but gave no details about its circumstances. - Sapa-AFP
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=123&art_id=qw1053269280371B262&set_id=1
May 18 2003 at 04:48PM
Baghdad - A famous Iraqi singer who used to glorify deposed president Saddam Hussein was assassinated by unidentified armed men in his Baghdad home, neighbours told reporters on Sunday.
"I saw three people driving in a pickup truck around the neighbourhood at 6.30pm (14h30 GMT) Saturday. At 6.45pm, one of them came to the gate of the garden where Daoud al-Qaissi was standing and started talking to him," Samir Doush said.
"He was joined by an accomplice who fired at Qaissi's head. The bullet pierced through the glass of the house," he said, adding that the three then sped away.
Qaissi, who was in his fifties, headed the union of Iraqi artists, and had mobilised singers, poets, actors and painters during the US-led war on Iraq to sing the praises of the Baath regime and the army.
After the war which led to Saddam's ouster on April 9, "we advised him to leave the house, but he refused, saying he would die some day anyway, whether here or somewhere else," Doush said.
In another incident demonstrating the lawlessness into which Baghdad has descended, the deputy dean of the science faculty at Baghdad's Mustansiriyah University was recently shot dead by students, a Kurdish official told reporters.
"Falah Dulaimi was shot dead because he harassed female students," said Adel Murad of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
A US official in Baghdad confirmed the murder but gave no details about its circumstances. - Sapa-AFP
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=123&art_id=qw1053269280371B262&set_id=1