The US State Department is not "sure" if the slain man is American.
After a failed kidnap attempt, a US citizen, living in Baghdad's Karada neighborhood since May 2021, was killed on Monday in central Baghdad, Iraqi police sources said. A police source said the victim's ID showed his job as an English teacher. A Security official said armed men in a vehicle opened fire at an SUV carrying the victim and shot him dead.
The mid-aged American citizen has frequently visited Baghdad and lived in Baghdad's Karada thoroughfare since May 2021. According to his Twitter, he spoke Arabic and was married with three children.
US state department spokesperson Ned Price said they were aware of an American citizen killed in Baghdad and are looking into it, but was not sure of his identity yet. Two security officials confirmed a United States citizen who worked for an international aid organization had been killed without giving his name.
The Canadian Military announced the death of a Canadian military officer in a "non-operational" on Saturday in Central Baghdad. The Canadian Military disclosing his identity, said, "He was working in Baghdad, Iraq, as an Executive Officer to the Directorate of Strategic Communications for Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve."
Iraqi Security Media cell said today that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had directed Interior Minister Abdul Amir Shamari to set up an intra-agency inquiry committee to investigate the killing of the US citizen.
Attacks against foreign individuals in Iraq have been since the defeat of ISIS in the country in 2018, but at times, rockets are fired towards American bases and representative offices in the country.
In March 2021, a US contractor died of a heart attack while sheltering from a rocket attack on an Iraqi base in Kirkuk, hosting troops from the US-led coalition fighting ISIS.
Two months into the incident, a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport assassinated Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.