Leading Iraqi Shiite gunned down

Gunmen have killed the representative of Iraq’s most senior Shiite Muslim cleric along with his son and four bodyguards in a town south of Baghdad.

Sheik Mohammed Finjan, representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Salman Pak, 12 miles from the capital, was shot dead last night as he was returning home from a mosque where he performed the evening prayers, an official said.

His son and four bodyguards were also killed in the incident, he said.

The killing appears to be a message to al-Sistani who strongly supports the holding of general elections on January 30. Insurgents, who many of them are believed to be Sunni Muslims, have been targeting electoral workers as well as candidates.

Shiites who make up 60% of Iraq’s 26 million people are expected to dominate the 275 member National Assembly in the first free elections held in Iraq since it became an independent in 1932.

Sunnis who make 20 % of the population have dominated politics since then.