BAGHDAD, March 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a judge working for the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try the deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants, Interior Ministry officials said Wednesday.

    Investigative Judge Barwize Mohamed Marwane and his son Arayan, who worked as a clerk for the tribunal, were gunned down Tuesday asthey left home in the northern Baghdad district of Adhamiyah, the officials said.

    The tribunal, set up in December 2003, wrapped up its first investigation of the former regime members on Monday, recommending Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti, former vice president Taha Yasin Ramadan and three others be brought to trial for genocide, war crime and crimes against humanity during their over 30-year rule.

    It was not clear what post the assassinated Marwane held in the tribunal.

    Insurgents often attack judicial officials of Iraq in an attemptto undermine the US-backed interim government. Several judges have been killed in recent months. Enditem