Several Turkish embassy guards killed in Iraq

However despite the threat of attacks, campaigning for the January 30 polls started to gain momentum, with Shias trading barbs with their political opponents over the role of Iran and thousands turning out for the first rally of Iraq's communist party.

Militants killed two Iraqis execution-style and wounded four US security contractors in a roadside bombing yesterday in violence across northern Iraq. Iraqi officials prepared to announce arrangements to bring detained Saddam Hussein regime members before a court next week.

The Turkish foreign ministry did not specify how many guards died in Friday's attack in the northern city, but CNN Turk television put the number at four.

One of the guards and a driver survived the attack and returned to Turkey, while two other guards made it safely to the embassy in Baghdad.

Two Iraqi sisters, both Christians working for the US military, were killed were killed on Wednesday when unknown gunmen opened fire on their car outside Baghdad, also killing their driver, police said Saturday.

An Iraqi woman was also killed and two relatives wounded overnight when US soldiers opened fire on their car which failed to stop at a checkpoint in Iraq's northern oil capital of Kirkuk, police said Saturday.

Iraqi authorities and US-led forces are struggling to cope with the deadly insurgency ahead of the first multiparty elections in Iraq in half a century. Some 2,000 communists gathered in a sports hall Friday for a first rally.

The head of one of Iraq's main Shia religious parties refused to get involved in an argument over accusations that Tehran is interfering in Iraq after defence minister Hazem Shaalan on Wednesday said Iran was behind the Shia electoral list.

"We expected this kind of irresponsible and inaccurate statements and we don't want a polemic," Abdul Aziz al-Hakim said.

"We trust the people to vote for those candidates who are supported by their religious leaders," he said.