URGENT/ Sahwa council leader killed near Hilla

BABEL / IraqiNews.com: A leader of a Sahwa council near Hilla city on Saturday was killed by unknown gunmen in the northeast of the city, a police source said. “Today, unidentified gunmen driving a vehicle opened fire on the leader of Jarf al-Sakhr Sahwa council, Abdelhadi Ali Makki, while he was inside his car on a street near Jarf al-Sakhr, killing him on the spot,” the source told IraqiNews.com. “The gunmen fled to an unknown destination,” the source noted. Babel, a Shiite province that lies 100 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has an area of 6,468 square kilometers (2,497.3 sq mi), with an estimated population of 1,385,783 people in 2003. The provincial capital is the town of al-Hilla. The ancient ruins of Babylon ( Babil , after which the region is named) are also in the province. SS (P) 1