KIRKUK, Iraq, Oct 16 (AFP) - An Iraqi Kurd working for the education ministry was shot dead Saturday by unknown gunmen in the northern city of Kirkuk, an education official told AFP.
"Unknown gunmen opened fire at 8:10 am (0510 GMT) on Abdul Ghafur Rahim Abu Bakr as he was leaving his home," said Fawziya Abdullah, the head of the education department for Kirkuk's province of Tamim.
Abu Bakr, employee by the education department in Tamim, also belonged to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish parties in Iraq that has announced its ambition to make the melting pot city part of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Gunmen assassinated Tamim's top education official, Turkman Ibrahim Isamil, two months ago. Insurgents have killed hundreds of civil servants in Iraq as they seek to stop people from working with the Americans.
Kirkuk is sitting a top a volcano of ethnic tensions among its Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen as each group claims primacy over the city.