After killing the three election staffers, the attackers set their vehicle afire. (AFP)

BAGHDAD, December 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In a new spree of violence in war-torn Iraq weeks before the elections, separate bombings on Sunday, December 19, killed at least 62 people in two Shiite cities while three election staffers were gunned down in the Iraqi capital.

Within a span of two hours, car bombs exploded in the Iraqi Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, reported Agence France Presse (AFP).

The blast in Najaf near the golden-domed Iman Ali Mausoleum, one of the most revered sites in Shiite Islam, killed 48 people and injured 90, a hospital official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The attack came after a car ploughed into a bus station in Karbala before exploding in a ball of fire, killing 14 people and wounding almost 50, medical sources said.

“A car bomb exploded at 1 pm (1000 GMT) at the bus station in Karbala, wounding at least 22 people, and leaving more than 10 minibuses destroyed,” Karbala police spokesman Rashid Meshawi said.

Eyewitnesses said the car had tried to enter a nearby police recruiting center but drove to the bus station instead when the street was sealed off.

The explosion comes just a few days after ten people were killed and 40 others wounded in a bomb attack near one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in Karbala.

The two bombings left a grisly aftermath of scorched earth, blood stains and shredded clothing and are the deadliest since last March when multiple bombings in Karbala and Baghdad killed more than 170 people.

Election Under Fire

In a new bad omen for the January ballots in the chaos-marred country, three elections staffers were gunned down by unidentified attackers in the Haifa street in central Baghdad.

The trio were dragged out from their vehicles by six gunmen armed with Ak-47 assault rifles and pistols and then shot dead.

The bodies were left lying in the street by the flaming wreckage of the vehicle.

“It's not by killing employees that the elections are going to be hindered, but the terrorists have their own strategy,” said Farid Ayar, spokesman for the Independent Elections Commission in Iraq (IECI).

The three commission members were identified as Hatem Ali Hadi al-Musawi, the deputy chief of the commission's offices in western Baghdad, and Mahdi Sabeeh and Sami Musa.

Following the killing, the attackers set up a roadblock in the street, stopping and searching every passing car in the area, witnesses said.

One fighter was killed and two others escaped after fighting broke out, the commission said in a statement.

The IECI is the highest executive and legislative power that manages the electoral process mechanism.

It consists of seven independent members selected by the UN out of 1000 candidates.

The IECI supervises voter registration, determines eligibility criteria and approves political entities and eligible candidates.

Elections will be held in Iraq on January 30 to choose a 275-member assembly that will write a permanent constitution.

If adopted in a referendum next year, the constitution would form the legal basis for another general election to be held by December, 2005.

But representatives of several Iraqi parties and leading political figures have been campaigning for a six-month delay of the vote over the increasing deteriorating security conditions.

UN Iraqi envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned that holding the elections would be impossible unless “first and foremost security improves.”

Kidnapping

Meanwhile, ten Iraqis were taken hostage by a self-styled armed group which threatened to kill them unless their US security employer halted operations in the country.

The Arabic-language Aljazeera news channel aired a videotape showing the ten handcuffed and blindfold sitting against a wall.

One of the hostages appeared injured and in pain, according to the AFP.

The footage included a statement read by a masked gunman, images of the hostages' belongings and a plea from one of the hostages to stop cooperating with US occupation forces in Iraq and interim Iraqi government.

“The company supplies tanks which are used in fighting,” the blindfolded hostage said.

“I urge everyone not to work for the Americans or to help the government of (Iraqi interim prime minister) Iyad Allawi.”