BAGHDAD (AFP) - A US citizen and five other staff of a Saudi trading firm were kidnapped in Baghdad, while a deputy governor was shot dead, plunging Iraq further into crisis on the eve of the US presidential election.
Violence also flared in the flashpoint city of Ramadi where six Iraqis were killed as nearby Fallujah braced for an all-out assault with US and Iraqi troops massing in the rebel heartlands.
Gunmen barged into the offices of the Saudi Arabian Trading and Contracting Company (SATCO) in the smart Mansour district, shooting dead one Iraqi guardsman and kidnapping three others along with a US citizen, an Asian and another Iraqi, interior ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman told AFP.
The US embassy in Baghdad had no immediate information on the abductions.
A group led by Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, snatched US contractors Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley and their British colleague Kenneth Bigley from the same neighbourhood in mid-September.
All three were later beheaded.
"They are soft targets and unfortunately this sort of thing will get worse," said an official at Iraq's foreign ministry after Monday's abductions.
The latest assault came as incumbent US President George W. Bush and his Democrat rival John Kerry prepared to hear the public's choice in an election campaign where the US-led war in Iraq has been a hot debating point.
Meanwhile expectations rose of an all-out assault on the rebel-held city of Fallujah, west of the capital, and its restive neighbour of Ramadi.
Six Iraqis were killed and 15 others wounded in another day of unrest in Ramadi, a Sunni Muslim bastion, hospital officials said. The cause of the deaths was not immediately clear.
Time is fast running out for the people of Ramadi and Fallujah as US and Iraqi troops intensify a campaign to crush pockets of insurgency ahead of Iraq's own national elections promised by the end of January.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued an ultimatum to residents of Fallujah on Sunday to surrender insurgents believed to be residing within its walls or face a US-Iraqi military assault.
"We have entered the final phase to solve the Fallujah problem," Allawi told a news conference. "If we cannot solve it peacefully, I have no choice but to take military action. I will do so with a heavy heart."
But President Ghazi al-Yawar, on a landmark visit to Kuwait, declared his opposition to an assault on Fallujah, in an interview published Monday.
"I totally differ with those who believe there is a need for a military solution to the (Fallujah) issue," Yawar said, criticising the US-led coalition's handling of the crisis and instead calling for continued dialogue.
Dialogue would "encourage neutral citizens to stop sympathizing with the rebels, most of whom are Saddam Hussein loyalists and forces which came from outside Iraq", Yawar said.
Since October 14, US troops have encircled Fallujah, where the military has repeatedly launched air strikes and some limited ground incursions. They are also doubling their troop strength to 2,000 in Ramadi.
Despite the strength and size of the US-led military in Iraq, an insurgency that flared up in the aftermath of last year's invasion has unleashed daily bombings and mortar attacks against army targets.
In a botched strike Sunday, 17 Iraqis were killed and eight wounded when two mortars, apparently aimed at a US base in former president Saddam's northern hometown of Tikrit, slammed into a hostel used by workers at a local factory.
Members of the US-backed government and other figures of Iraqi authority are also favourite targets in the insurgency.
In the latest assassination, deputy Baghdad governor Hassam Kamel Abdel Fattah was shot dead by unknown assailants as he was driving to work, Iraq's interior ministry said. Two bodyguards were also injured.
Amid the mayhem, Iraq began registering voters and potential candidates for legislative elections less than three months away.
"Today voter registration is starting all over the country," said Farid Ayar, the spokesman for Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission. "It is going well up until now," he told AFP.
Some 550 registration centres throughout Iraq have been set up in the same location or near where Iraqis are accustomed to receiving their food rations -- a leftover from the UN oil-for-food programme when the country was under sanctions.
11/01/2004 - 21:13 GMT - AFP