Interior Ministry announces it keeps up findings of inquiry commission over killed MP

BAGHDAD/IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s senior interior official on Sunday said his ministry would keep up the information of the government’s commission of inquiry over killing of an MP from a bloc loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr until hunting the killers down. Speaking at a press conference in Baghdad, Adnan al-Asadi, interior senior deputy minister, said “PM Nouri al-Maliki ordered setting up a commission of inquiry headed by Interior Minister to probe the killing of MP Saleh al-Eakili from the Sadrist bloc and to bring the perpetrators to justice”. The Interior officials highlighted “the operation of the commission has started on Friday by conducting secret investigations, adding “the commission would keep up the current findings to be presented to the Prime Minister once they have been finalised”. Al-Eikili was died of his wounds after his car was hit with a roadside bomb on the perimeters of Shiite slum Sadr City. The MP was a senior member of al-Sadr’s political bloc, which has 30 seats in the 275-member parliament. The Shiite cleric’s cease-fire order to his militia has been a key factor in a sharp decline in violence over the past year. Sadr City and surrounding areas were long dominated by al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia and where the site of fierce clashes between U.S.-Iraqi forces and Shiite extremists earlier this year. The area has been relatively peaceful after al-Sadr declared his cease-fire and the Iraqi security forces assumed control in late May. AM(S) 1