Senior Iraqi ruler killed by drive-by assassination

A senior member of the US-backed Iraqi government was assasinated in a drive-by shooting by insurgents today.

Deputy Governor of Baghdad Hatem Karim was killed and four of his bodyguards wounded in the attack in the Dora district of the Iraqi capital.

The murder was the latest in a series of attacks targeting officials linked to the interim government and underlined fears that January's planned elections will be ruined by violence.

Mr Karim's death came as the first moves towards setting up the first ever democratic elections for the country finally got under way.

Some 24million voter registration forms were being handed out to residents picking up their food parcels under the UN Oil for Food programme.

As there is no census in the country, the scheme is seen as the best way to reach all potential voters by giving everyone with a ration card a voting registration form.

The project is also seen as a key means of preventing terrorists disrupting the registration process. In Afghanistan, voter registration points were frequent targets for bomb attacks.

An Iraqi interior ministry spokesman said Mr Kamil was travelling through the south of the capital when gunmen appeared in a couple of cars and rammed his vehicle near a mosque. The men opened fire with automatic machine guns, killing the deputy governor and wounding his security staff.

Insurgents have killed dozens of government officials in recent months in a bid to destabilise the country's reconstruction and spread fear ahead of the January poll.

The latest attack came as the Black Watch came under rocket fire at their base south of Baghdad.

Mr Karim's murder is bound to be seized on by Democrat presidential challenger John Kerry as proof that President Bush is failing to get a grip on post-war Iraq. But it also raises fresh fears that Tony Blair will not be able to claim a "Baghdad bounce" from successful elections there.

The assassination came as Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi spoke of an imminent military showdown with rebels in the western city of Falluja. He said he had little patience left for Falluja, where US Marines are awaiting orders to attack guerrillas and Islamist militants.

In the northern Sunni Muslim city of Tikrit, 15 civilians died yesterday when a rocket fired by insurgents hit a hotel used by migrant workers.