Two carloads of gunmen were behind the assassination of a top national security official and his driver in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad today, police have said.

The director general of the Iraqi Trade Ministry and his driver were killed by gunmen today in western Baghdad.

TAKING the law into their own hands, Baghdad residents blockaded streets and beat up looters yesterday as disorder spread in the Iraqi capital.

Lawlessness spread in Baghdad today even as the fighting dwindled to occasional bursts of machine gun fire.

Iraqi civilians have torn up and spat at portraits of Saddam Hussein in multiple acts against the Saddam regime in Baghdad today.