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The gunmen that stormed the house of the official spokesman of the Baghdad Security Plan on Thursday, bundling him off in their vehicles in an unknown direction, arrived in widely recognized official security vehicles used by the Iraqi forces and wore Interior Ministry commando uniforms, according to an eyewitness in the area.
The witness in the al-Amin district of Baghdad told IraqSlogger that the attackers arrived at the residence of Tahsin al-Shaykhli on a main street in the southeastern district at around 3:00 pm local time.
The witness counted approximately 13 cars, and identified them to Slogger as the vehicles that Iraqis call "Monicas," the Land Cruisers used by the Iraqi security forces.
The attackers were wearing the uniforms of Interior Ministry commandos, the witness also said.
An unknown number of al-Shaykhli's guards were killed or seriously injured as the attackers stormed the house, the witness added.
After placing the spokesman in one of their vehicles, the attackers drove off in an unknown direction while the house burned down, the witness also said.
Slogger sources confirm that the "Monica" nickname for the official vehicles is widely known among Baghdadis, and is commonly understood as an uncouth reference to Monica Lewinsky, the Clinton White House intern who gained notoriety in a well-known sex scandal and congressional investigation.
The term crudely likens the profile of the vehicles, which grow larger at the stern, to the former intern's physique at the time of the widely publicized events that dogged President Bill Clinton's second term in the late 1990s. Members of IraqSlogger's network of Iraqi staff contributed to this report but choose to remain anonymous for security reasons.
