A senior security official from the southern Iraqi province of Nineveh has been shot dead. Colonel Saad Khalil Saleh, assistant to the provincial police chief, was killed outside his home in Qayyarah (80 km south of Mosul), on Friday night. A local source told Arab Today that gunmen opened fire on Saleh as he was returning from Ramadan prayers. Police in Nineveh recently arrested 44 individuals suspected of having links with extremist organisations. During the raid in Mosul last week, they also managed to seize a number of weapons.