Ex-Saddam general shot dead in Baghdad

A former Iraqi general under Saddam Hussein turned defence ministry advisor was shot dead in broad daylight in central Baghdad on Friday security sources said.

Gunmen assaulted Abdelamir Hassan Abbas as he was driving his car in the neighbourhood of Zayona, pumping bullets into him with a silenced firearm, the security official with the interior ministry said.

"They killed him immediately," he added. The incident was confirmed by Iraqi military sources. Abbas, a Shiite brigadier general in executed dictator Saddam Hussein's army, went to work as a civilian consultant for Iraq's defence ministry several months ago.