AFP 

Baghdad, May 26: The coach of Iraq's tennis team and two players were shot dead by armed gunmen here, the head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee (IOC) reported on Friday.

According to eyewitnesses, the three men were killed on Thursday 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 told AFP.

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

One witness, who requested anonymity, told AFP: "The three men were driving in a car and dropped off some washing at a launderette when they were stopped by the gunmen who had seen they were in shorts.

"The coach and players were stopped by the armed group, two of them got out of the car and were shot with a bullet in the head, the third was killed in the car.

"The gunmen took the body out of the car and threw it on top of the other two bodies before stealing the car."

This is not the first time sportsmen have been targeted in the war-torn country.

On May 17 a group of 15 members of Iraq's taekwondo team were taken hostage between Fallujah and Ramadi to the west of the capital on their way back from Amman.

The kidnappers demanded a ransom of 100,000 dollars for their release, according to Jamal Abdel Karim, a member of Irak's Olympic Committee.

A former Iraqi boxing champion Jasseb Rahma was shot dead in the town of Bassorah on Feb 25.