updated 2:52 p.m. ET July 29, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq’s national soccer coach resigned after receiving death threats against him and his family.

Akram Ahmed Salman submitted his resignation Friday to the secretary general of the Iraqi Football Federation, Ahmed Abbas, and left the capital.

“He resigned due to a threat he received to quit training the Iraqi soccer team,” Abbas said.

It wasn’t clear if the threat was made over the telephone or through a written statement.

Abbas said that Salman was told, “’We know you, your family members and your address. Quit training the Iraqi soccer team otherwise you’ll all be eliminated.”’

Salman was not available for comment.

It was the latest in a series of threats, kidnappings, and killings of Iraqi sports officials.

Earlier this month, unknown gunmen kidnapped the chairman of Iraq’s National Olympic Committee and at least 30 other officials, including the presidents of the taekwondo and boxing federations, in a brazen daylight raid on a sports conference in the heart of Baghdad.

The abduction came after Iraq’s national wrestling coach, a Sunni, was killed in a Shiite district of Baghdad.

Iraqis have been rallying behind their soccer team, whose successes in the past three years have provided a joyous distraction from the daily violence.

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