MADAIN, Iraq – A U.S.-allied Iraqi city council member sprayed American troops with gunfire Monday, killing two soldiers and wounding three and an interpreter, Iraqi authorities and witnesses said. The attack occurred minutes after they emerged from a weekly joint meeting on reconstruction in this volatile town southeast of Baghdad.
Raed Mahmoud Ajil, a former high school principal in his mid-40s, was known as a respected city council member and educator who had recently returned to Iraq after completing his master's degree in India, colleagues said. U.S. troops shot and killed him at the scene.
Ajil's colleagues said they could think of no motive for the deadly rampage, which is thought to be the first incident of a U.S.-allied Iraqi politician carrying out such an attack. Ajil comes from a distinguished Sunni Muslim family. His brother is security chief for the Iraqi Ministry of Justice and a cousin is a high-ranking judge, relatives said.
Ajil's family said that he had suffered from bouts of depression and sporadic epileptic seizures, which he masked in his role as a public servant. Relatives knew him to be friendly to U.S. troops and said he had no qualms about working alongside them, even though many in this mixed Sunni-Shiite Muslim town view American forces as occupiers.
A married father of three, Ajil was elected to the council in 2003 as an independent, relatives and colleagues said. In 2004, when sectarian violence in the town halted reconstruction, the city council was dissolved and many members fled or were killed.
Ajil left Iraq to complete his master's degree in India, returning frequently to check on his family and city, colleagues and relatives said. He'd returned for good only in the past week and had resumed his civic work. Abed said the council had yet to be fully reinstalled, though the members showed up for regularly scheduled meetings.
Madain, 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, is in a region frequented by Sunni and Shiite extremists that became known as the "triangle of death." While the number of attacks nationwide has dropped to levels last seen in 2004, U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned that militants remain capable of inflicting lethal attacks.
Two reports released Monday laid out the reduction in violence, including significant political, economic and security progress in Iraq. But both cautioned that the country remains unstable and volatile.
The quarterly Iraq progress report issued by the Pentagon warned that Iran and Syria continue to provide safe havens for terrorists, and allow them to travel across the borders into Iraq.
On the domestic side, the report sounded a pessimistic tone, saying the government of Iraq still struggles to enact its budget and fund large projects to rebuild its infrastructure.
The government, it said, "lacks the ability to execute programs on the scale required," and economic improvements remain "fragile, reversible and uneven."
A second report, issued by the congressional Government Accountability Office, pointed to a lack of progress by Iraqi forces since just 10 percent can operate on their own. And it said the government continues to fall behind in meeting the demands for services, such as electricity.
Other data in the reports included:
• Northern Iraq continues to be a problem area, with roughly half of all security incidents occurring there.
• Most provinces in other parts of the country averaged less than one attack per day.
• Civilian deaths in May were 75 percent lower than last July.
• High-profile attacks are down more than 70 percent over the peak in March 2007.
The Los Angeles Times and Associated Press contributed to this report.
