Iraqi footballer shot dead: police

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KIRKUK, Iraq, Feb 10, 2009 (AFP) - An Iraqi top league footballer was shot dead by an unknown assailant on Tuesday as he waited for a taxi to take him to his club, officials said.

Ahmed Shallal, a 24-year-old player with Ath-Thawra Sport Club, was killed in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk.

"He was trying to rent a taxi near his house and an unknown person, accompanied by one or two others in a car shot him," said Sarhad Qadir, a senior police officer.

A director of Ath-Thawra, Said Nuri Mohammed, said: "We do not know why he was killed, whether it was a terrorist act or for some other reason, but as a result we have lost a distinguished player."

Harbi Khalid, chief of the city's Olympic committee, added: "He was a player of talent and we demand that the police find those responsible."

In a separate incident in southern Kirkuk, a policeman was killed and four of his colleagues injured by a homemade bomb, police official Abdullah Mahmoud said.