A forensic officer inspects the shooting scene in Fairfield.
AN organised crime gang operating within Sydney's Assyrian community may be linked to the shooting murder of an Iraqi-born man, police said.
New South Wales Police were investigating links between the slaying of Ashwoor Audisho, 21, in Fairfield West last night, and a fatal drive-by attack at the Babylon Cafe in Fairfield last October.

Superintendent Mark Henney, who heads the gang-focused Task Force Gain, said a criminal syndicate within the city's Assyrian community in Fairfield, led by fugitive Ramon Youmaran, could be responsible for last night's murder.

But he said the latest incident was not related to the murders of boxer Bassam Chami, 26, and his friend Ibrahim Assad, 27, who were gunned down in Granville, in Sydney's west, on March 29.

"At this stage, my understanding is that there are no links to the double murder in Granville," Supt Henney said.

"But we are looking very closely at whether there are any links to the Babylon Cafe murder."
he October 2005 attack, in which masked gunmen sprayed bullets at the cafe, killed bystander Ramon Khananyah, 29, and left three other men injured.

Mr Youmaran is wanted over the Babylon Cafe shooting and a 2002 murder that sparked violent retribution in southwestern Sydney.

Police said he narrowly escaped capture in February during a high-speed car chase.

Supt Henney said police believed Mr Youmaran, who regularly changes his appearance, was being harboured by gang and family members in the Assyrian community in Fairfield.

Meanwhile, police were hunting three men, described as being of Middle Eastern appearance, over last night's shooting.

Mr Audisho, of Assyrian descent, had no criminal record and was not known to police.

He was at the Assyrian community's Ninevah Club in Edensor Park before being confronted by at least three men on Hamilton Road, at nearby Fairfield West.

Following an argument with the trio, Mr Audisho was shot three times and later died in hospital, Supt Henney said.

The police investigation is focusing on a black four-wheel-drive seized in raid on an Edensor Park home after the shooting.

No arrests have been made.

Neighbours who called triple-0 and went to help Mr Audisho said the violence was deeply disturbing.

But they said they took some comfort from the belief it was not a random shooting.

"In my opinion it was a hit," said a neighbour who did not want to identified.

"It all looks like a gangland type of thing to me."

Police say Mr Audisho may have been involved in a dispute at the Ninevah Club before his death.

Assyrians are from a minority people inhabiting parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
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