A senior Iraqi intelligence officer was shot dead near his home east of Baghdad on Monday, according to state media.
This is the latest in a wave of targeted killings that has swept the country in recent years.
Col Nebras Shaban was assistant director of the Intelligence Service’s Monitoring Department, according to local news reports.
“Unidentified gunmen opened fire on the officer in the Al Baladiyat area, east of Baghdad early on Monday. He died immediately,” Iraq’s state-run National Iraqi News Agency said quoting a security source.
The assassination is a desperate "attempt to disturb the agency from performing its national duty," the intelligence service said in a statement.
Col Shaban is an "example to be followed for having a prominent role in fighting terrorism and organized crime throughout his years of service", it said.
"His blood will be a beacon for retribution against criminals who are attempting to rob and weaken the Iraqi state," according to the statement.
An investigation has been started by the appropriate authorities.
In March, another senior intelligence officer was assassinated in the Iraqi capital.
Gunmen carrying a pistol fitted with a silencer assassinated Lt Col Mahmoud Laith Hussein in Baghdad's western neighbourhood of Mansour.
The gunman shot Hussein in the head after running up to him from behind and kicking him in the leg; he was wearing a white cap, according to CCTV footage.
The officer worked at the Intelligence Service Counter-Espionage Department.
Targeted killing is not a new phenomenon in Iraq. The country has witnessed dozens of high-profile assassinations since operations against ISIS and other extremist groups were launched.
Some militias, which are backed by Iran, have accused Iraq’s intelligence services of collaborating with the US forces against them.
Qassem Suleimani, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport after landing from Syria in January 2020.
Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis was also killed in the operation.
The killing of Col Abu Ali comes as Iraq’s military intensifies its battle against the remnants of ISIS, despite its formal defeat in 2017.
Iraq's military along with the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces have launched a joint operation in the north of the country to find ISIS militants as well as hidden bases, tunnels and caches of weaponry.
ISIS seized a third of Iraqi territory in 2014. Iraqi security forces, with the assistance of a US-led multinational coalition and Iran-backed paramilitary forces, managed to retake territory from the terror group until it was declared defeated in 2017, months after the capture of its stronghold in Mosul.
The group has since waged a steady insurgency across parts of northern Iraq and a porous border with neigbouring Syria.
In recent months there has been an increase in deadly attacks that officials attribute to ISIS.
The January bombing of a crowded Baghdad market killed more than 30 people and injured at least 100 others. The bombers blew themselves up among a crowd of shoppers at a second-hand clothes market in the capital's Tayaran Square.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, which has become rare in the capital since its defeat.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Healthcare spending to double to $2.2 trillion rupees
Launched a 641billion-rupee federal health scheme
Allotted 200 billion rupees for the recapitalisation of state-run banks
Around 1.75 trillion rupees allotted for privatisation and stake sales in state-owned assets
