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Annex VIII: Attacks on Athletes and Sports Officials<br />
The following incidents were reported in the media since January 2006:<br />
• 26 January 2007: The body of well-known Shi’ite boxer Hassan Hadi was found in<br />
Haifa Street, a Sunni-dominated neighbourhood of Baghdad, after he had been<br />
kidnapped some days earlier. 1009<br />
• December 2006: Iraq’s Olympic cycling coach was killed after gunmen kidnapped him<br />
from his home. 1010<br />
• December 2006: The body of Hadib Majhoul, head of the popular Talaba club and<br />
a member of the Iraqi Soccer Federation, was found dead after he was seized by<br />
gunmen while driving to work. 1011<br />
• 1 November 2006: Armed men seized Khalid Nejim, the basketball federation chief<br />
who also was a coach for the national basketball team, and Issam Khalef, who coached<br />
blind athletes, from a youth club on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad. 1012<br />
• November 2006: A blind Iraqi athlete and a Paralympics coach were kidnapped, but<br />
were released unharmed after sports officials said their abductors determined neither<br />
was linked to the Sunni insurgency. 1013<br />
• 9 October 2006: Hazim Hussein, an Iraqi international soccer referee, was kidnapped by<br />
unidentified assailants as he left the Iraqi Federation of Football in Baghdad’s northeastern<br />
Shaab Stadium. According to the head of the Iraqi Referee Association, the<br />
kidnappers had demanded a US $200,000 ransom. 1014<br />
• 6 October 2006: Gunmen killed Naseer Shamil, a former Iraqi national volleyball<br />
player, in his shop in Baghdad. 1015<br />
• 3 September 2006: Ghanim Ghudayer, a popular Iraqi soccer player of Baghdad’s Air<br />
Force Club and member of Iraq’s Olympic team was kidnapped by unknown assailants<br />
in the Al-Amil neighbourhood. His whereabouts remain unknown. 1016<br />
• July 2006: Iraq’s national soccer coach, Akram Ahmed Salman, resigned after receiving<br />
death threats against him and his family warning him against continued training of the<br />
1009 AP, Iraqi boxer abducted, killed, 26 January 2007, http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/175293.<br />
1010 Ibidem, Cycling coach latest victim of violence in Iraq, 21 December 2006, http://sports.espn.go.com/<br />
oly/cycling/news/story?id=2704659&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines.<br />
1011 AP, Gunmen Kidnap Soccer Official in Baghdad, 1 December 2006, http://www.wtop.com/?nid=157&<br />
sid=992412.<br />
1012 Ibidem, Gunmen kidnap Iraqi coach for blind, 2 November 2006, http://www.thestate.com/mld/<br />
thestate/news/world/15902505.htm.<br />
1013 Kirsten Sparre, Disabled athletes also targets for kidnappers in Iraq, Play The Game, 8 November 2006,<br />
http://www.playthegame.org/News/Up%20To%20Date/Disabled_athletes_also_targets_for_kidnappers_in_Ira<br />
q.aspx.<br />
1014 AP, Iraqi international soccer referee kidnapped in Baghdad, 11 October 2006,<br />
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php?refid=WH-S-16-10-2006&article=11002.<br />
1015 Ibidem, Scattered violence leaves 25 dead in Iraq, 7 October 2006, http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/<br />
ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061007/iraq_violence_061007/20061007?hub=Newsletter.<br />
1016 Ibidem, Iraqi Olympic Soccer Player Kidnapped, 4 September 2006, http://www.foxnews.com/<br />
story/0,2933,212041,00.html.<br />
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