Smh.com.au
April 11, 2005 - A man who was an intelligence officer in the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein committed suicide after news that Jalal Talabani was sworn in as President of Iraq.
Captain Hatem Ahmad al-Shallal shot himself in the village of Daqouq, 60 kilometres south of Kirkuk, the source quoted al-Shallal's relatives as saying.
The officer had been "in an abnormal hysterical state" since Mr Talabani was sworn in as President last Thursday.
"He could not accept the idea of a non-Arab as President of an Iraqi state," the source quoted the relatives as saying.
Mr Talabani, a Kurd, is an old foe of Saddam.
After the 1991 Gulf war, he helped lead a full-scale uprising against Saddam, resulting in a US-backed autonomous Kurdish enclave in the north.
DPA
