Hani Salim Wadi owned a mobile phone store in downtown. He was 34, married with a daughter. Local eyewitnesses say that he was shot to death in a “targeted killing”. The local Christian community now fears a new wave of violence.

Kirkuk (AsiaNews) – A member of the Christian community in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, was the victim of a new, targeted killing. Last night, a 34-year-old businessman was shot to death. Local sources told AsiaNews, “Christians are once more the target” of attacks. In the city, there is an “atmosphere of insecurity”.

An eyewitness said, “At 9 last night Hani Sali Wadi was killed in front of his house”.

Born in 1976, he was married with a daughter, the source told AsiaNews. He was a businessman and owned a mobile phone store in downtown Kirkuk.

At present, it is unclear why he was killed, but Christians fear the community might be in for a new wave of violence. “We Christians are once more targets of attacks,” the source lamented.

Northern Iraq, especially in Mosul and Kirkuk, has been the scene of targeted attacks against the Christian community for quite some time. The area is in the middle of a power struggle between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.

Christians believe they are being persecuted amid an atmosphere of general indifference.

They are convinced that attackers “are not common criminals” and that behind the attacks “are precise political plans”, namely the creation of a Christian enclave on the Nineveh Plains.

In their view, both central and provincial governments “are doing nothing to stop it”. (DS)

• iraq
• christians
• muslims
• islam
• persecution
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• murders