Sepcial Report: Tension accelerates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, May 9 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi judge was shot dead on Tuesday by unidentified gunmen on a main road in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

    "Judge Muhaimin Mahmoud Abbod was gunned down by unknown gunmen while he was driving his car on the main road near the Nafaq al-Shurta tunnel," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Tuesday morning, unknown armed men assassinated Sheikh Raad al-Dulami, a Sunni Muslim cleric, in the Saidiyah neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, the source said.

    Meanwhile, Umer Hejab Jasim, a bodyguard of parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, was wounded as unknown gunmen attacked him in western Baghdad, the source added.

    Insurgents have stepped up attacks across Iraq that have left hundreds of people dead, as power vacuum prevailed in the war-torn country after three years of the U.S.-led occupation. Enditem