Gunmen kill head of Baghdad mental hospital-police

Gunmen killed the head of a Baghdad psychiatric hospital, police said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of assassinations that has caused many of Iraq’s top medical practitioners to flee the country.Ibrahim Mohammed Ajil was heading to his home in the Baladiyat district of eastern Baghdad late on Monday when gunmen on two motorcycles shot him dead.

Ajil was the head of the al-Rashad hospital, Iraq’s largest secure mental institution, which lies on the outskirts of the sprawling Sadr City district of Baghdad.

Many of Iraq’s leading medical specialists have been targeted by insurgents and gangs, prompting many to flee Iraq.