GUNMEN KILL THREE IN ATTACK ON ARMENIAN MAYOR

Agence France Presse — English
April 3, 2007 Tuesday 10:13 AM GMT

Gunmen killed three people in an attack on the mayor of Armenia’s
second-largest city who was wounded and in serious condition in
hospital on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

Gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons on a two car-convoy taking
Mayor Vardan Gukasian from Yerevan back to Gyumri, a city of 151,000
located kilometres (75 miles) northwest of the capital, late Monday.

Three people in the convoy died at the scene, a spokesman for the
prosecutor general said. Gukasian, his deputy Gagik Manukian and his
driver were wounded and taken to hospital. Three others escaped injury.

Gukasian, a member of Armenia’s ruling Republican party, was returning
to Gyumri following a party vote Monday night to name Defence Minister
Serge Sarkisian as Armenia’s new prime minister.

Sarkisian, 52, will succeed Andranik Margarian, who died of a heart
attack on March 25 after seven years as prime minister.

Politics often turn violent in Armenia, an ex-Soviet country in
the volatile Caucasus region south of Russia. In 1999, five gunmen
stormed into the parliament and killed the prime minister and seven
other top officials.