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BAGHDAD--An Iraqi anti-graft police officer was shot dead outside his home Friday, a police official said, in the second such murder in the countrys south over the last month.

Armed assailants this morning shot dead Mohammed al-Shemussi, a captain in the anti-corruption section, in front of his home, said Majed Hamid, a police captain in Amara, the capital of Maysan province.

The perpetrators fled in a taxi, he added.

Shemussi was in charge of applying the mandates of the integrity commission, the federal governments anti-corruption body.

Corruption in Iraq has deprived the public purse of some $450 billion of revenues since 2003, according to a 2019 parliamentary report.

In May, another Iraqi officer specialising in corruption issues was killed in Maysan.

He was killed the day after a police search at the homes of corruption suspects, another police source said.

The home of the Maysan tax authoritys chief was among those searched, the source said.

Such positions are routinely allocated on the basis of political allegiance in Iraq.

The two killings are part of a wave of attacks against anti-corruption personnel in the rural province, sometimes involving bombs, including one against a judge, the source added.

Graft is endemic across Iraq, which ranks among the worlds worst offenders in Transparency Internationals annual Corruption Perceptions Index.

Since 2004, a year after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, almost $450 billion of public funds have vanished into the pockets of shady politicians and businessmen, according to parliament.

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Gunmen kill anti-graft officer in Iraq, in challenge to government | | AW - The Arab Weekly