"The Secretary-General is appalled by the continued indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, which no cause can justify," a UN spokesperson said in a statement released on his behalf.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, senior UN envoy Ashraf Jehangir Qazi today condemned the recent brutal attack against two defence lawyers to the Special Iraqi Criminal Tribunal. Defence lawyer Adel Mohammed al-Zubeidi was killed and his colleague Thamer Hammoud Hadi injured.

That assault was the second since the trial of officials of Saddam Hussein's regime started three weeks ago. On 20 October, Saadun al- Janabi, another defence lawyer was kidnapped and executed.

Mr. Qazi warned that these attacks "could undermine Iraq's effort at conducting its juridical process in a fair and transparent way, consistent with International practice" and urged "immediate action by the Iraqi authorities to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice, and to assure the security of all concerned."

His call followed a similar condemnation by the Secretary-General, who on 8 November deplored the "cold blooded murders."