The US embassy in the Iraqi capital said the US citizen killed in Baghdad has been identified as 45-year-old Stephen Edward Troel.
Troel from Tennessee worked in humanitarian aid and as a teacher in Iraq. Unknown assailants killed him as he was driving in his car and on the road with his family in Baghdad’s Karrada district.
It was a rare killing of a foreign national in Iraq, where security has improved in recent years, including opening the door to tourism.
The embassy said it was closely following the investigation launched by Iraqi authorities, but declined to comment further out of respect for the family of the deceased.
A State Department official said Troel is a private citizen with no ties to the government. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani ordered an investigation hours after the assassination.
The circumstances surrounding Troel’s death and his activities in Iraq remain a mystery. No group has claimed responsibility for the crime. Police officials ruled out the possibility that it was a failed kidnapping attempt.
Police officials said that when the troll entered the street where he lived, a vehicle cut him down and shot him at another in Wahda area of Karada locality. He said that his wife and son were with him, but they were not harmed. The whereabouts of the wife and children are unknown.
Troel worked for a language school in Baghdad’s Harthiya neighborhood and it is reported that he was also employed by an American NGO called Millennium Relief and Development Services. The Associated Press tried to contact the organization’s headquarters in the northern province of Dohuk, but local officials said the unit had not operated for two years.
