Iraqi judge in Saddam tribunal shot dead

Gunmen in Baghdad killed a judge working for the Iraqi special tribunal set up to try Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants, a setback in efforts to close the chapter on decades of oppression.

Elsewhere in the Iraqi capital, two car bombs killed 13 Iraqi soldiers and wounded dozens in attacks claimed by Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Judge Barawiz Mahmoud and his son, who worked as a lawyer, were killed as they left their home in north Baghdad on Tuesday.

His death was the first assassination of a member of the special tribunal, which includes around 50 trial judges, investigating magistrates, prosecutors and appeals court judges.

Mr Mahmoud's other son Maryon said the attack was politically motivated because his father was seeking to bring Saddam and former members of his Baath party to justice.

"I was sleeping and I heard shooting. I came out and saw blood running from my father's neck. My father was shot twice and my brother 11 times," he said near the scene of the shootings. A female relative wailed inside the home.

"We knew this was coming because of my father's work. He and my brother died holding their heads up high. This gives me comfort."

One of yesterday's car bombs was outside an Iraqi army base used as a recruitment centre. Six soldiers were killed and 38 people were wounded, police said. A second car bomb targeted a convoy of Iraqi soldiers, killing seven and wounding two.

"On Wednesday (yesterday) morning, a lion from the martyrs' brigades of Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq carried out a heroic attack on a centre of the apostate guards," Zarqawi's group said in a statement which indicated it was a suicide bombing.

In a separate statement posted on Islamist websites, it claimed the attack on a convoy of "apostate guards".

Guerillas fighting to overthrow the US-backed government have repeatedly attacked Iraqi police and soldiers, as well as people lining up to take jobs in the security forces.

On Monday, a suicide bombing claimed by Zarqawi's group killed 125 people south of Baghdad - the deadliest single attack since Saddam's overthrow.

The judge's killing came a day after the tribunal referred its first charges against defendants, saying it had enough evidence to put five former Baath party officials on trial, including Saddam's half brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti and former Deputy Prime Minister Taha Yasin Ramadan.

The trial is not expected to begin for at least another seven weeks. Saddam, who briefly appeared before a judge last July, is expected to be tried next year on war crimes charges. (Reuters)

Iraqi officials involved with the special tribunal say they hope the trials of Saddam's top deputies will help build a case against the former dictator, captured in December 2003.

Saddam loyalists and foreign Muslim militants, some loyal to Zarqawi, are behind most of the suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings plaguing Iraq.

A Swedish-Iraqi politician kidnapped and threatened with beheading said in a video he feared he would soon be killed.

Minas al-Yousifi, 59, appealed to Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf, Pope John Paul and to all "patriotic and honest people in the world" for help.

"I have been transferred to the Death Brigade. This certainly means my death and execution," said Mr Yousifi, standing in front of a black banner of Iraqi Vengeance Battalion, Martyr al-Isawi Brigade, the group that kidnapped him in January.

Iraqi militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it had killed two Turkish truck drivers transporting cement to US forces in the north of Iraq, according to an Internet statement.

But General John Abizaid, head of US Central Command, struck a positive note when he told the Senate Armed Services Committee that improved Iraqi intelligence sources and "treason within his own organisation" had led to successes against Zarqawi. "His days in Iraq are numbered," Mr Abizaid said.

He said that on Iraq's election day on January 30, when Zarqawi sent suicide bombers to attack polling stations, only around 3,500 insurgents took part in efforts to disrupt the poll.