Body Dumped

Obaidi's wife told another defense lawyer that men in police uniform took Obaidi from his Baghdad home around 7 a.m.

"They said 'We're from internal security and we need you for questioning'," Qatari attorney Najeeb al-Nuaimi told Al Jazeera television. Two hours later, Obaidi's body was dumped on a road beside a poster honoring a Shi'ite cleric killed under Saddam.

The attack appeared very similar to the killing of another lawyer the day after the televised trial began in October.

Lead defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said the assailants blasted open a gate at Obaidi's home. He told Reuters the hunger strike, not the first of its kind, would go on until Washington improved security for his team. US officials said Obaidi had turned down protection and urged his colleagues to accept it.

Saddam and seven Baath party allies are being tried for crimes against humanity over the deaths of Shi'ite villagers.

A police officer said Obaidi had been shot eight times and there were signs of torture. Both his arms were broken.

Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said the killing would "not affect or delay the trial and we will defy terrorism."

It came two days after Moussawi demanded the death penalty for Saddam and three of his senior Baath party allies.

Shopowners told Reuters three gunmen dumped the body of Obaidi at a roundabout under a poster of a senior Shi'ite cleric killed by Saddam's agents in 1999. The cleric is the father of Moqtada al-Sadr, a cleric and leader of the Mehdi Army militia.

"They fired into the air and said 'This is the fate of Baathists!'," said a vegetable seller whose store is close by.

The area is not far from the Sadr City slum, a stronghold of Sadr's militia. The body of Saadoun Janabi, the first lawyer to be killed, was also dumped nearby. Neighbors said then that he was seized by men saying they were from the Interior Ministry.

The trial has also been marred by the resignation of the previous judge, who complained of government pressure. Defense counsel are due to sum up on July 10. A verdict may take months.

Unlike other defense lawyers, Obaidi still lived in Iraq. Defiant, he told Reuters last year: "Whatever will be will be."