One of Saddam Hussein's main lawyers was shot dead on Wednesday after men in police uniform took him from his home, relatives said, the third defense attorney to be killed since the trial opened in October.

Gunmen also abducted 80 or more factory workers traveling home in a fleet of buses just north of Baghdad, police and Interior Ministry sources said. Violence is a major challenge for the new, US-backed government of Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki, who has launched a security clampdown on the capital.

Khamis al-Obaidi during Saddam Hussein's trial in Baghdad, October 19, 2005. Gunmen kidnapped and killed al-Obaidi and dumped his body in a Baghdad street, police said on Wednesday. [Reuters]

The killing of lawyer Khamis al-Obaidi was a new setback for the US-backed court. It fueled complaints sectarian bloodshed is crippling a fair trial. Saddam's Sunni Arab minority accuse Shi'ite militias within the police of running death squads.

The lead lawyer, blaming pro-government militia for killing his deputy, called for a halt to the trial and said Saddam and others were on hunger strike. A US military official, however, said Saddam ate his evening meal. Some other inmates did not.

Five busloads of employees from a factory in Taji north of Baghdad were commandeered by dozens of gunmen, officials said. One source put the number of those kidnapped at least 100.

The area sees significant Sunni Arab insurgent activity. Similar mass kidnappings have ended in massacres of those taken.

Al Qaeda's allies said in a Web posting they would kill four Russian embassy staff kidnapped in Baghdad 18 days ago because Moscow failed to meet a deadline to pull troops out of Chechnya. Russia urged the group to heed Muslim calls to free the men.

A US official said eight members of a Marine unit in Iraq would be charged with murder over the shooting of a disabled man in April. It is one of a number of cases in which US troops have been accused of killing Iraqi civilians. Charges are expected over the deaths of 24 people at Haditha in November.

In a debate likely to shape US legislative elections in November, the Senate fought bitterly on Wednesday over measures pushed by opposition Democrats to wind down US involvement in Iraq that Republicans derided as "cut-and-run" strategies.

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