Jordanian driver killed in Iraq
A Jordanian truck driver has been killed and then had his eyes gouged out in western Iraq.
Ayid Nasir, a Jordanian father of two, was carrying supplies from Amman to Baghdad when he was attacked by armed men outside the town of Ramadi, 110km west of Baghdad, early on Saturday according to witnesses and police.
Reuters Television pictures showed at least seven bullet holes in the windshield of his yellow Mercedes truck and others in the body of the vehicle. The driver was hit at least four times, including two wounds each to his head and chest.
Pictures taken at a Ramadi hospital shortly after the attack showed that he had also had his eyes gouged out using a sharp instrument. Truck drivers travelling with Nasir’s convoy said the mutilation took place after he was shot dead.
“The poor man. He was working for himself, just trying to
make a living,” said a policeman at the scene.
Truck drivers are regularly attacked on the desert highway
from Jordan to Baghdad, stretching hundreds of kilometres with no police or security surveillance.