Wednesday, December 14 2005 10:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: The assassination yesterday (Dec 13, 2005) of a Sunni candidate in Iraq's election cast a shadow over expatriate voting for a new parliament that many hope will restore stability to the war-torn country.

The election has been billed as a critical democratic step for Iraq nearly three years after the US-led invasion, with officials determined to draw Sunni Arabs back into the political process and undermine support for the insurgency.

But just two days before Thursday's (Dec 15, 2005) main vote, Mizher al-Dulaimi became the latest victim in a string of assassinations that have marred campaigning.

Dulaimi was shot dead in his car in Ramadi, a western Sunni city almost besieged by insurgents, an interior ministry source said.

Head of a list presented by the independent Iraqi Free Progressive Party, he was a leading candidate in the troubled Al-Anbar province, which has seen some of the worst violence of the insurgency.

Al-Qaeda has warned people in Ramadi not to vote and threatened to kill those who participate in the election.

US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad slammed the assassination.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the killing of candidates, such as Mizher al-Dulaimi and any attempt to intimidate voters. We want the elections to be clean and fair," he told reporters.

Outside Iraq, voting taking place today in 15 countries where exiles have settled since fleeing the former Saddam Hussein dictatorship or the rampant violence since the 2003 US-led invasion.