Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Killed

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By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed a deputy foreign minister as he went to work Saturday, the latest attack on Iraqi leaders in recent weeks. A radical cleric whose uprising killed hundreds pledged to support the new government if it works to end the U.S. military presence.

Bassam Salih Kubba, Iraq's most senior career diplomat, was mortally wounded in Baghdad's Azimiyah district, Foreign Ministry spokesman Thamir al-Adhami said. The attack took place in a Sunni Muslim neighborhood where support for Saddam Hussein was strong.

The attack on Kubba, a Sunni, was the second assassination of a senior Iraqi figure in the past month. The head of the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, was killed in a suicide car-bombing May 17 at an entrance to the heavily guarded Green Zone headquarters of the U.S.-run occupation authority.

Another Governing Council member, Salama al-Khafaji, escaped injury in a May 27 ambush south of Baghdad but her son and chief bodyguard were killed. Council member Aquila al-Hashemi, also a career diplomat, was assassinated last September.

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