WAR: Iraqi Minister shot dead in Baghdad.

An Iraqi interim deputy foreign minister, Bassam Qubba, has been killed in an attack in the capital, Baghdad.

Mr Qubba, the ministry's senior career diplomat, was shot several times in the stomach, injuries from which he later died in hospital. He was shot on his way to work on Saturday morning.
The attack was the second on members of the government inside of four days. Such attacks are expected to increase as the deadline for the handover approaches.
Source

Attacks on American soldiers have not been hitting the news recently, but the hitting of government officials now seems alot more deliberate and planned, suggesting a far more structured organisation behind the attacks than the militia guerilla groups previously implicated.

[edit on 12-6-2004 by Nerdling]

One must remember that their are people in this world whos business is killing and creating conflict. That is all they live for!!! That is why peace in the middle east will never happen.

To me it is a clear sign of a faltering weakened insurgency resorting to desperate measures that will ultimately lessen its support amongst the population.

Al Sadr seems to have realized this but foreign backed groups do not have the worries of maintaining local support for their actions, hence the degeneracy into terroristic actions by cells rather than organized militia action on a wider scale.

I wish I could agree that this is indicative of a faltering insurgency, but I don't think so. The insurgency will last as long as there is one person who still believes in. What we have a hard time keeping in mind is that these people are finatics. This is what they live for, it is the center of their existence. Absent divine intervention, I don't know how it's going to change and stabilize.

i dont think these attacks on government are related to iraqi insurgents, i think its foreign fighters trying to sabotage the country, maybe al queda wants to install a taliban type government and is using cia type tactics to accomplish it in secret, making it look as though iraqi fighters are against the government.