Iraqi tennis coach killed ‘for wearing shorts’

The coach of Iraq’s tennis team and two players were shot dead by armed gunmen here on Thursday, the head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee reported today. According to eye witnesses the three men were killed because they were wearing shorts.

‘‘Armed men assassinated the trainer Ahmed Rachid and two players, Nasser Ali Hatem and Wissam Adel Odah on Thursday afternoon in the Saidiya district (of Baghdad),’’ Amer Jabbar, the IOC’s secretary general said.

A few days before the attack a Sunni militant group had issued a warning forbidding the wearing of shorts, witnesses said.

One witness said: ‘‘The three men were driving in a car when they were stopped by the gunmen. Two of them got out of the car and were shot in the head. The third was killed in the car.”