The car of General Imad Hasham, of the army's sixth division, was raked with gunfire on Wednesday night as he drove through Mansur district, killing him and wounding his daughter, ministry officials said.

In another attack that night, gunmen shot and wounded police Lieutenant Colonel Majid Hamid as he was driving through Amiriya.

The same night, gunmen killed a jewellery store owner in his shop in Dura, in southern Baghdad, another interior ministry official said, adding that the murder was not part of a robbery.

And on Thursday, physician Mohammed Ismail was shot dead in his car in the western district of Adel, an interior ministry official said.

Earlier in the day, police discovered the body of Barbaros Mohammed Habeeb, a member of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in the disputed northern oil hub of Kirkuk, police Colonel Azad Abdullah said.

Habeeb had been shot 10 times, Abdullah said.

After parliament approved on Tuesday Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for a second term of office and gave its stamp of approval to his national unity cabinet, Maliki cited security as one of his three top priorities.

But 10 ministries, including those responsible for security and controlled by Maliki in the interim, still only have acting heads.

While violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks remain common, especially in the capital and the main northern city of Mosul.

The number of people killed last month was the lowest in a year for the second month running, with 171 people -- 105 civilians, 23 soldiers and 43 policemen -- dying in attacks.

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