Wednesday, November 9 2005 10:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Three gunmen in a speeding car killed a lawyer for a co-defendant in Saddam Hussein's trial and wounded another yesterday (Nov 8, 2005) in Baghdad, a member of the defence team and police said. It was the second assassination of a Saddam defence team lawyer in less than a month.

Adel al-Zubeidi, who was representing former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, was shot to death and attorney Thamir al-Khuzaie was wounded in the ambush in the predominately Sunni Arab neighbourhood of Adil, according to lawyer Khamees Hamid al-Ubaidi.

Saddam's main lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, blamed the Government for yesterday's attack, telling Al-Jazeera television that the shooting was carried by an armed group using Government vehicles.

"The aim of these organised attacks is to scare Arab and foreign lawyers," al-Dulaimi said. "We call upon the international community, on top of them the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to send an investigative committee because the situation is unbearable."

He called for moving Saddam and his colleagues into a neutral country. Al-Dulaimi said defence lawyers do not recognize the trial's next date which comes on November 28.

A police general said the attack occurred when three gunmen in a speeding car pulled alongside the lawyers' vehicle and opened fire. The general spoke on condition of anonymity because the sensitive case was in the early stages of investigation.

Al-Zubeidi also represented Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, a former Baath party official.