NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - The judge behind the creation of a judicial commission to probe former officials of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime was shot dead, as insurgents stepped up their campaign against pro-US public figures.
Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili, the top judge in the central governorate of Najaf, was kidnapped along with Najaf prosecutor general Aref Aziz, from the judge's house in the city early Monday, Aziz said.
The two were taken in cars to a desert area eight kilometers (five miles) north of Najaf, he said.
"One of the assailants said 'Saddam has ordered your prosecution.' Then they fired two shots into his head," Aziz said.
"As for me, they told me 'this does not concern you'. They released me," he added.
Shuwaili had signed onto the decision to create the Baath Investigative Commission, made up of four attorneys who probe complaints before raising them with an investigative judge.
The commission, created on August 10 upon a decision by the municipal council, was meant to prosecute former regime loyalists, mainly members of the former ruling Baath party. It has so far received 400 complaints.
The commission -- unique in Iraq -- has issued 160 arrest warrants, upon which 50 people have been detained.
Last month, a member of Iraq's interim Governing Council said an Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) would shortly be set up for judges to try Saddam-era crimes against humanity, war crimes and charges of genocide and torture.
Also in Najaf, the president of the city's municipal council, Sheikh Khaled al-Numani, said he had escaped an assassination bid late Sunday when assailants opened fire on his house, triggering retaliatory fire by his guards.
"Two of the three assailants were caught. One of them is an Egyptian named Rabih al-Masri who has been living in Najaf for a long time," Numani told AFP.
"The attempt was carried out by remnants of the former regime and parties collaborating with them," he said.
"It is time for the American occupation forces to give back the security file to the Iraqis who know better the issues of their own country."
Numani is an official of Iraq's top Shiite political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). He is also one of the most vocal supporters of prosecuting former regime loyalists.
In Baghdad, a member of a neighborhood council sponsored by the Americans was killed in a drive-by shooting late Sunday, the US-led coalition said in a statement on Monday.
"Mustafa Zaidan al-Khaleefa, the chairperson of the Karkh Neighborhood Council, was killed on Sunday evening ... while he was walking alone on Haifa street near his home" in central Baghdad, said the statement.
A white Toyota Corolla with no license plates drove up and one of its occupants shot him, it said.
The deadly shootings of the judge and the neighborhood council member were the third assassinations to be carried out against anti-Saddam figures in the past eight days.
On October 26, Baghdad's deputy mayor, Faris Abdul Razzaq al-Assam, was gunned down near his home in the conflict-riven city.
On August 29, prominent Shiite spiritual and political leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, who opposed armed resistance to the US occupation of Iraq, was killed in a car bombing in Najaf along with 82 others.
Akila al-Hashimi, a member of the US-installed Governing Council, was also shot dead by assailants near her Baghdad home on September 20.