SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The chief bodyguard of Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani was shot dead by gunmen at his Sulaimani home on Wednesday, his family said.
They said that Sarwat Rashid was attacked in the kitchen of his home in the Kani Ba neighborhood as he was getting ready to leave for the airport to catch a flight to Germany, where Talabani has been recuperating since suffering a serious stroke last December.
“One of my nephews called me at 4 o’clock in the morning and said they had been attacked,”
Omar Hama Rashid, the victim’s brother, told Rudaw. “I quickly went to Sulaimani and took him to the emergency room, but he died from severe wounds an hour later,” he added.
He said that his dead brother did not have any personal feud with anyone and dismissed media claims he was killed by robbers.
“We do not have any social or political issues with anyone and we will be waiting for the outcome of police and security investigations,” Rashid said.
He said three people had been involved in the attack, one keeping watch while the other two climbed into the house on a ladder and shot Rashid in the abdomen and the head.
“The family told the attackers to take any money and jewelry they wanted but not shoot them,” said Rashid’s brother. “But the attackers had replied, ‘we don’t want money or gold.’ After the attack the money and jewelry were still in their place.”
Rashid, 42, was a native of Said Sadiq near Halabja and had been Talabani’s chief bodyguard for a number of years.
Talabani’s office in Sulaimani, as well as the office of his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party, condemned Rashid’s killing.
