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.
