Iraqi merchant, who ordered his large house to become an orphanage, assassinated

WASSIT / IraqiNews.com: An Iraqi merchant in southern Iraq’s Wassit Province who planned to convert his house into an “orphanage,” was assassinated on Saturday, a Wassit police source said. “The outstanding merchant, Karim Abid Hmoud, who was assassinated by gunmen on Saturday, had recently ordered that his 45-room palace in Nu’maniya township in Wassit Province, be converted into an orphanage,” the police source told IraqiNews.com news agency. He said that Hmoud’s Lawyer had stated that the assassinated merchant had “expressed his wish to convert his 45-room furnished house, into an “orphanage, for orphaned children in Wassit Province, rather than them roaming in the streets.” “The assassinated merchant was not married and had no kids to inherit his legacy,” the Lawyer said, adding that ”his will would be executed.” A group of unknown armed men had broken through the house of Merchant Karim Abed Hmoud in Nu’amaniya township, 40 km to the north of Kut, the center of Wassit Province, and shot him dead together with his Egyptian guard, escaping to an unknown destination. He said the assassinated merchant, Karim Abed Hmoud, had been an outstanding merchant in Wassit Province and held the post of Chairman of the Duleim Tribe in the Province. Kut, the center of Wassit Province, is 180 km to the southeast of Baghdad. SKH(TR)/SR 1057