Four Iraqi Businessmen, Diplomat Killed In Jordan Masked Men Tie Eight Victims One By One To Chair, Slit Throats

Unidentified assailants slit the throats of eight people in a hilltop villa, including a top Iraqi diplomat and a billionaire who reportedly owed the Iraqi leadership millions of dollars, officials said Sunday.

Authorities said they are unsure about a motive in the Saturday night attack but said the diplomat - Hikmet al-Hajou, the No. 2 man at the Iraqi Embassy in Amman - probably was not the target.

Slain Iraqi businessman Namir Ochi ran a company for President Saddam Hussein that handled food imports into Iraq. Ochi also apparently was involved in illegal arms imports, Western diplomats said.

The attackers struck just as alHajou and other guests at the Amman home of Iraqi businessman Sami George Thomas had finished a banquet breaking the daily fast for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Four or five masked men, speaking with Iraqi accents, entered the white stone villa, tied up their victims one by one to the same chair, slit their throats and stabbed them, the lone survivor, Thomas’ cook, told police.

Thomas, 62, who had lived in Jordan for several years, was among those killed. He is believed to have been involved in private business deals for Saddam and his eldest son, Odai, for the past decade.

Also killed were al-Hajou’s wife, Leila Shaaban, 39; two other Iraqi businessmen; and an Egyptian night watchman and his friend, said Brig. Hisham Nsour, head of the Amman Public Security Department.