Iraqi Vice-President's Brother Was Gunned Down by Sunni Insurgents

Ghalib Abdul Mehdi, brother of Vice-President Adel Abdul Mehdi and aide to Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, was gunned down yesterday together with his drivers in a Sunni attack, BBC informed.

As the parliamentary elections on December 15 approach, the attacks of the Sunni insurgents are intensifying. The death of Ghalib Abdul Mehdi was preceded by the explosion of a truck loaded with explosives, in a farming village northeast of Baghdad, which killed 26 persons and wounded at least 34.

In an interview for Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said insurgent attacks might increase before the polls, but added that the army is trying to keep things under control.

"We are capturing and killing large numbers of high-ranking people from groups like those of al-Qaeda and Zarqawi", Mr. Rumsfeld said.

In a separate attack in the capital, Deputy Trade Minister Qais Dawoud Hassan was wounded by gunmen. The attack on his motorcade killed two of his bodyguards and wounded another five guards and a passer-by.