Bomb kills Baghdad provincial council member and parliamentary candidate

BAGHDAD — Safaa Al-Hijazi, a Baghdad Provincial Council member and candidate in Iraq’s upcoming parliamentary elections, was killed Wednesday in a car bombing in the Tarmiyah district north of the capital, officials said.

A sticky bomb planted under Al-Hijazi’s SUV exploded early Wednesday in the Hay Al-Dhubbat neighborhood, according to the Baghdad Operations Command. The blast killed Al-Hijazi and injured four others in the vehicle.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani ordered the formation of a joint forensic team and a high-level committee under the supervision of the Baghdad Operations Commander to investigate what his office described as the “martyrdom of candidate Safaa Al-Mashhadani.”

Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani condemned the assassination as “a cowardly terrorist act that targeted a national and social figure,” and said the Council of Representatives would also form its own investigative committee.

In a statement mourning Al-Hijazi, the speaker called him “a loyal son of Tarmiyah who devoted himself to serving the people and defending justice and national values.”

The Al-Siyada Alliance, the Sunni political bloc on which Al-Hijazi was running in the Nov. 11 election, described the killing as “a continuation of the exclusion and treachery practiced by lawless armed groups.” The group held Baghdad’s security authorities fully responsible for what it called “a serious breach.”

“The Al-Siyada Alliance mourns to the Iraqi people the martyrdom of our leader and Baghdad Provincial Council member Safaa Al-Mashhadani, who was killed in a treacherous attack that targeted his car north of the capital,” the statement said. “This cowardly crime is an extension of the same policy of elimination and violence pursued by out-of-control weapons and terrorism, aimed at silencing free national voices.”

Lawmakers across the political spectrum condemned the attack. MP Aisha Ghazal Al-Masari warned it could signal a return to darker periods of political violence.

“The return of assassinations rings alarm bells for the security of Baghdad after a period of calm and stability,” she said in a statement. “Those criminals are once again trying to sow chaos and insecurity and target every sincere national voice.”

She called on authorities to “take full responsibility in identifying the killers and holding accountable anyone involved or complicit in this act, regardless of their position,” and vowed, “Safaa Al-Hijazi’s blood is a trust we carry… We will continue to demand justice until the killers are brought to court and the truth is known to the people.”