Gunmen Kill a Top Official in Baghdad

Kamal Shyaa Abdullah was warned to drive in a guarded convoy when he traveled through the streets of Baghdad — he was a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Culture and was soon to become a deputy minister. But he disliked all the fuss of bodyguards and extra cars, and he refused protection.

On Saturday, Mr. Abdullah, 54, was killed by gunmen as he and his driver headed down the highway toward a public garden where they had planned to relax in the hottest hours of the afternoon.

Akil al-Mendlawi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture, said that Mr. Abdullah, a well-known scholar and a member of the Communist Party, had become friends with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki when both men were in exile in Syria.

Mr. Abdullah’s promotion to deputy minister had been approved, and Mr. Maliki was expected to sign papers confirming his appointment within days.

Violence also erupted on Saturday in the city of Kirkuk, where a suicide bombing killed at least five people and wounded at least seven, including Abdul Kareem Ahmed al-Obaydi, a prominent member of the American-backed Sunni forces known as Awakening Councils.

The bomber detonated an explosives-filled vest inside an automobile dealership in a southern area of the city, according to Maj. Salih al-Lihabi of the Kirkuk police.

Mr. Obaydi, the leader of the Awakening movement in Diyala Province, his son and two bodyguards were killed when the bomb exploded, a few minutes after 7 p.m.

The suicide bombing is the second in Kirkuk since last weekend.

In Baghdad, American military officials released Ahmed Nouri Raziak, 38, an Iraqi photographer working for The Associated Press who had been held in jail for almost three months.

Maj. John C. Hall, an American military spokesman, said that Mr. Raziak had been believed to be a security risk, but was released when “after review, he was determined not to pose a risk.”

Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of The A.P., said in a statement that the news agency “will be seeking more specific information about why he was picked up and held and about his experience during his incarceration.”

Also in Baghdad on Saturday, officials at the Justice Ministry said that a court had issued a death sentence for Asad al-Hashimi, a former culture minister who was convicted for the 2005 murders of two sons of a well-known politician.

Mr. Hashimi, a member of one of the parties in Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in Parliament, has been a fugitive since last year.