Cairo: A cousin of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the leader of the extremist group that has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, was killed on Sunday in a security raid, Iraqi media reported, hours before the parliament was to convene to elect its chief amid a political deadlock.
Mazban Al Badri, a senior leader in Al Baghdadi’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), was killed in fighting with government troops in the northern province of Diyala some 75km north of the capital Baghdad, independent Iraqi site Al Sumaria News reported, citing an unnamed security official.
“The operation was carried out following precise intelligence information that the wanted man was staying in the area,” the official added without elaborating.
Al Baghdadi declared in late June the establishment of an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the control of his group in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
The declaration came weeks after his Al Qaida splinter group, believed to be backed by local Sunni militias, seized large chunks of territory in northern and western Iraq.
The extremist group’s surge into Iraq comes amid deep rifts among the country’s Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
The parliament, elected in April, is to meet on Sunday in a bid to break a political impasse that has blocked the process of choosing the country’s top three positions — president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker.
Sunni politician Selim Al Jaburi is a frontrunner for the post of the parliamentary speaker, media reports said.
Outgoing Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, who has been in office since 2006, is fighting for a third term as premier, despite criticism from opponents accusing him of monopolising power and marginalising the Sunni community.
According to rules set up after the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq’s leadership must incorporate all three of the country’s major ethnic groups. The speaker has to be a Sunni Muslim, the prime minister a Shiite and the president Kurdish.
