WORLD : Iranian Kurd Leader, 2 Others Killed
VIENNA — Gunmen assassinated Iranian Kurdish opposition leader Abdolrahman Qassemlu and two other exiled Kurdish activists and wounded a man with an Iranian diplomatic passport as they met in Vienna, police said today.
“The murders were politically motivated,†Police Chief Werner Liebhart told a news conference. “We don’t know what the meeting was about.â€
Liebhart said the three killers, who fled, burst into an apartment in central Vienna where the four men had held talks Thursday evening and immediately opened fire.
Qassemlu, 59, was secretary general of the pro-Iraqi Democratic Party of Kurdistan. In Tehran, independent sources who declined to be named said Qassemlu, who has led the Iranian Kurds against Tehran for over 20 years, had been negotiating a settlement with the leadership emerging in Tehran after the death of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini last month.
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