"Uphold constitutional order": Guterres condemns assassination attempt on Iraqi PM

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for the perpetrators of the failed assassination attempt against Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to be brought to justice and also asked that 'constitutional order' be upheld while political parties got together to resolve their differences.

He also requested Iraqis to maintain order even as an investigation was carried out into the perpetrators of the assassination attempt, the statement through his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric is quoted as saying.

Al-Kadhimi who had come out to assure the public that he was alive and unharmed, said in a press statement late on Sunday that those responsible for the attack had been identified and would be 'brought to justice' soon. He also claimed that the 'cowardly' ones who ordered the attack on him were the same as those who had murdered Nibras Farman, an Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) officer.

An explosives-laden drone was revealed to have been the assassination weapon of choice by the Iraqi military. The drone was flown into Al-Khadimi's residence in the fortified Green Zone of Baghdad early on Sunday morning. On June 7, Nibras Farman was shot dead by unidentified assailants at his home in al-Baladiyat, Baghdad.