Returning Iraqi official killed
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- One of Iraq's deputy foreign ministers, Bassam Kubba, has been killed Saturday morning in an ambush outside his Baghdad home, according to witnesses and government sources.
Kubba had recently returned from the United States.
Around 8 a.m. (midnight ET), Kubba was leaving his house when a car carrying two to three assailants drove by and fired shots into his car.
Kubba was a career diplomat who worked in the foreign ministry for over 30 years, holding an important post under the previous regime.
He had been a part of Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari's recent delegation to the United Nations in New York.
This is the second attack this week on an Iraqi government official. Assailants opened fire on Iraq's deputy health minister, Ammar al-Saffar, Wednesday morning as he left his home for work. He escaped unharmed.
Kubba was born in Baghdad on April 27, 1944, and graduated with a degree in English literature from Baghdad University, according to the coalition's Web site.
He earned a Master's degree in international relations at St. John's University in New York.
Kubba joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1968 and served in a variety of key positions worldwide, from Charge d'Affaires of the Iraqi mission to the United Nations, to Ambassador to China.
Ambassador Kubba also served on the Steering Committee which ran the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the fall of the previous regime.
