Gunmen kill brother of Iraq vice president: Police

Baghdad, Oct 9: Gunmen in police uniforms killed the brother of Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi in northern Baghdad , police and members of the Sunni Islamic Party said today.

Amer al-Hashemi, a major general in the Iraqi army, was at home in Sulaikh when gunmen stormed into the house and killed him late yesterday.

''Gunmen in police uniforms and in 10 police cars arrested his bodyguards and then entered his house and killed him,'' a police source said.

Hashemi's sister, Meysoun, and another brother, Mahmoud, were killed by gunmen earlier this year.

Insurgent and Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian violence is convulsing Iraq and the United Nations estimates kills 100 people a day.

Tareq al-Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party is the largest in the main Sunni political bloc in parliament and was the first Sunni Islamist party to join the political process, which US and Iraqi officials hope will defuse the Sunni insurgency.

Reuters