BAGHDAD, Jan 13: Two aides of Iraq's top Shia leader Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani have been killed in separate attacks apparently aimed at inflaming sectarian conflict among Iraqis already divided on whether Jan 30 polls should go ahead.

A Sistani representative said on Thursday that gunmen killed cleric Mahmoud Al Madaen along with his son and four bodyguards. Madaen, Sistani's representative in the ancient town of Salman Pak south of Baghdad, was killed on Wednesday.

Another aide, Halim al-Mohaqeq, a cleric working in Sistani's office in Najaf, was also found dead on Wednesday. "Sheikh Halim was found drowned in his own blood.

Investigations are under way," leading Sistani representative Hamed al-Khafaf said. Sheikh Mahmud al-Madahaini had been the target of several threats and attempted assassinations in the past, the official added.

Meanwhile, a Turkish businessman was kidnapped outside his central Baghdad hotel early Thursday by men who machine-gunned a mini-van of his employees who had comed to collect him, killing all seven, a hotel employee said.

"At 6:00 am (0300 GMT), like every morning, seven employees of the (Turkish construction company) arrived to pick up their boss, a Turk named Abdel Kader Tam," the source said.

"Today, 10 armed men in two cars were waiting for them. They machine-gunned the bus, killing all seven occupants, and kidnapped the Turk." Iraqi officials say a series of attacks on Shia targets in Iraq show that Sunni insurgents are mounting a campaign to inflame sectarian distrust, which has already been stoked by divisions over the elections.

Iraq's 60 per cent Shia majority, oppressed for decades under Saddam Hussein, strongly supports the elections. A list of mainly Shia candidates drawn up with Sistani's approval is expected to dominate the polls.

Sunni leaders say that if many Sunnis regard the elections as unfair, this will spark more bloodshed and even civil war. The reclusive Sistani, Iraq's most widely revered religious leader, commands enormous influence in the country. Sistani has appealed for restraint from Shias, saying acts of revenge would destroy the country.

"Do you think that Shia forces cannot storm into southern Baghdad and secure these areas? But we don't want to hand our enemies the civil war they want," a Shia official in the government said.

UNDER ATTACK: On Dec 27, a suicide car bomber killed 13 people outside the Baghdad offices of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a major Shia political party whose leader heads the main list of Shia election candidates.

A week earlier, twin suicide car bombings in the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala killed nearly 70 people. Insurgents have also repeatedly targeted Iraqi police and security forces in the run-up to the elections, killing scores since the start of the month.

US and Iraqi officials have conceded that some areas of the country are still too unsafe for voting to take place there. But Washington insists that the elections should go ahead on time, saying that delaying the vote would be a victory for the insurgents, and that imperfect polls are better than none.

"We want to make sure that there is as broad participation as possible in those elections. I think we all recognise that the election is not going to be perfect," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Wednesday.

Several leading Sunni parties say they are boycotting the vote because the results will be unfairly skewed against the Sunni minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam.

American officials also said on Wednesday that the US force that scoured Iraq for weapons of mass destruction - cited by President Bush as justification for war - had abandoned the hunt.

In renewed violence in Baghdad on Thursday, gunmen seized a Turkish businessmen outside a hotel and killed six Iraqis believed to be his guards, police and witnesses said.

SHIA MOSQUE ATTACKED: Three people were killed and 13 others wounded Thursday when a car bomb exploded in front of a Shia mosque in the Khan Beni Saad region north of Baghdad, police said.

"The car was parked in front of a Shia mosque and it exploded as the faithful were leaving evening prayers," killing three and wounding 13, the city's security service said.

Police said that it appeared the bomb had been operated by remote control. Nine shops situated close to the attack caught fire and three cars parked close to the vehicle were completely destroyed. -AFP/Reuters