The sister of the newly appointed vice president of Iraq was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad.

Meysoun al-Hashemi, sister of Tareq al-Hashemi, and her bodyguard were killed while driving through the Hay al-Ilam part of the city. The woman was leaving her home in a southern suburb of the capital and was going back to work at the time of the attack.
She was the head of the women's affairs department in the Iraqi Islamic Party, the faction led by her brother. This announcement comes after, on April 13, a brother of the Iraqi official Mahmoud al-Hashimi was shot and died while driving in an area of east Baghdad mostly inhabited by Shiites.

The violence came as Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians try to form a new government and stop the sectarian violence. Hashemi, Iraq's most prominent Sunni Muslim, was elected on Sunday for a unity government.

No one claimed the killings so far, but leaders of the Sunni-based insurgency, including Abu Musa al-Zarqawi, head of the al-Qaeda organization in Iraq, threatened Sunnis who take part in the US-backed puppet government, as they see it.

U.S. officials are hoping for Sunnis to participate in the government led by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an effort to reduce the flaming violence which has been going on for the past 2 months.