BAGHDAD — An Iraqi Parliament member who was also the leader of a local council of the Sunni Awakening, an American-backed group of Sunni militias that switched sides to fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Anbar Province on Tuesday, security and government officials said.
The lawmaker, Efan al-Essawi, who owned a construction company, had gone to inspect a road that it was building to connect Falluja with the main highway in Anbar, a trade route that leads west to Syria and Jordan. The region has been embroiled in turmoil since last month, when protests, led mostly by Sunnis, broke out against the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The demonstrations continued in Anbar on Tuesday.
Officials said that the suicide attacker, disguised as a worker, approached Mr. Essawi and blew himself up, killing Mr. Essawi and injuring one of his guards.
Mr. Essawi had escaped many assassination attempts before. In 2009, attackers placed a magnetic bomb on the armored car that he was using when he was a candidate for Parliament, the first attack on a candidate as those elections approached. He avoided serious injury in that episode.
The province called for three days of mourning for Mr. Essawi, a prominent local figure, and members of his largely Sunni bloc of lawmakers, Iraqiya, boycotted a session of Parliament in protest over the inability of the government to respond to the demands of the demonstrators and its failure to provide adequate security.
“Today our ministers have boycotted the session in the cabinet, as they want to send a message to say that we are closer to the street, not the government,” Leqa Mahdi, a member of Iraqiya from Anbar Province, said in a telephone interview. “This boycott will continue until the government responds to the demands of the demonstrators, until the parties sit down and find real solutions for the current crisis.”
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on Mr. Essawi, but one of his close associates said he had seen in a text message a threat by Al Qaeda against Mr. Essawi that said, “We will kill you even if it was the last day on earth.”
The assassination comes as Iraq grapples with political turmoil. A raid last month by security forces on the office and home of the Sunni finance minister, Rafe al-Essawi, and the arrest of 10 bodyguards inflamed tempers and stirred charges that Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, was monopolizing power and marginalizing Sunnis ahead of provincial elections scheduled for April. Rafe al-Essawi is not related to Efan al-Essawi.
Over the past few weeks, thousands of Sunnis have staged protests, mostly in Anbar, to show their anger against the government. They and senior opposition politicians have made repeated calls for Mr. Maliki to resign.
Iraqi government television reported that Mr. Maliki said on Tuesday that the killers of the lawmaker would be tracked down and punished.
Iraqi Lawmaker and Sunni Leader Killed in Suicide Bombing
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Iraqi Lawmaker and Sunni Leader Killed in Suicide Bombing
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Iraqi Lawmaker and Sunni Leader Killed in Suicide Bombing
