Cleric gunned down in Basra

BASRA, Sept. 20 (Iraqi News) – An Iraqi cleric was killed by unknown gunmen in northern Basra city, the media office in Basra police said on Saturday. “During a late hour on Friday evening, unidentified gunmen opened fire on Sheikh Ady Ali Abbas al-Agrash in his house in al-Kindi area (9 km north of Basra city), killing him on the spot,” a source from the office told IraqiNews.com – Voices of Iraq – (Iraqi News). The assassinated cleric is a brother of Sheikh Mohammed al-Agrash, the leader of al-Agrash and al-Daghaghila tribes who was arrested two months ago and released shortly thereafter, the source explained. Basra, 590 km (340 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has an estimated metropolitan population of 2,300,000 in 2008. Basra, a Shiite province with 20% of the population are Sunnis, is the cradle of the first civilization of Sumer. It has the seven main Iraqi ports. The first built in Islam 14 A.H. (After Hegira), the city played an important role in early Islamic history. The area surrounding Basra has substantial petroleum resources and many oil wells. The city’s oil refinery has a production capacity of about 140,000 barrels per day (bpd). The only Iraqi outlet to the sea, Basra is in a fertile agricultural region, with major products including rice, maize corn, barley, pearl millet, wheat and dates as well as livestock. A network of canals flowed through the city, giving it the nickname “The Venice of the Middle East” at least at high tide. The only Iraqi outlet to the sea, Basra has the commercial ports of Iraq.   SS (S) 1