By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A brother of one of Iraq's two vice presidents was shot and killed Sunday on his way to work in Baghdad, officials said. A top Trade Ministry official was wounded and two of his bodyguards were killed in a separate attack, police said.
Ghalib Abdul-Mahdi, brother of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, was gunned down along with his driver while traveling to work at the office of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, two aides to the vice president said.
The aides spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to talk on the record to the media. Ghalib Abdul-Mahdi served as an adviser to the prime minister. One of Iraq's vice presidents is a Shiite and the other is a Sunni. Adil Abdul-Mahdi is a Shiite.
An Internet statement posted on an extreme Islamist Web site claimed that al Qaida in Iraq had killed Ghalib Abdul-Mahdi. The statement's authenticity could not be independently verified.