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BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's Olympic cycling coach was killed
after gunmen kidnapped him from his home in the latest attack on
one of the nation's sports figures, officials said. Family members identified the body of 48-year-old Mahoud Ahmed
Fulayih at the central morgue in the capital on Monday, two days
after he was abducted, said Hussein al-Amidi, the acting secretary
general of Iraq's National Olympic Committee. He said Fulayih was kidnapped three days after he returned with
the cycling team from the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. The team did
not win any medals there. "We lost another one. He is not a politician and has no link
with any party," al-Amidi said. "It looks like no one is excluded
from the violence." Athletes and sports officials have increasingly become targets
of threats, kidnappings and assassination attempts in Iraq, either
as part of retaliatory violence between Shiites and Sunnis or for
ransom. Here are some recent cases: • Last month, the body of Hadib Majhoul, head of the popular
Talaba club and a member of the Iraqi Soccer Federation, was found
dead after he was seized by gunmen while driving to work. • In November, a blind Iraqi athlete and a Paralympics coach
were kidnapped but released unharmed after sports officials said
their abductors determined that neither was linked to the
Sunni-dominated insurgency. • An Iraqi international soccer referee was recently abducted as
he left the soccer association's offices. The kidnappers reportedly
demanded $200,000 ransom. • Gunmen also killed a 37-year-old former national volleyball
player, Naseer Shamil, in his shop in Baghdad, while 22-year-old
Ghanim Ghudayer, a popular soccer player and member of the Iraqi
Olympic team, was kidnapped in September. • In July, Iraq's national soccer coach, Akram Ahmed Salman,
resigned after receiving death threats against him and his family. That came shortly after gunmen kidnapped Ahmed al-Hijiya, the
chairman of the National Olympic Committee, and at least 30 other
officials, including the presidents of the taekwondo and boxing
federations, in a daylight raid on a sports conference in Baghdad.
The group is still being held. • Iraq's national wrestling coach, a Sunni, was killed around
the same time in a Shiite district of Baghdad.
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