BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen killed the brother of Iraq Vice President Adil Abdul Mehdi and his driver early Sunday in eastern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.
Ghalib Abdul Mehdi, who was also an adviser to the Iraqi Ministries Council, and his driver were heading to work when gunmen attacked them. The driver was killed, and Mehdi was taken to a hospital, where he died of his wounds, the official said.
An official with the vice president's office confirmed Mehdi's death.
"What happened will not stop the political process in Iraq and it will not hinder democracy in Iraq," he told CNN. "Thousands of Iraqis have been killed over the past two years, and Adil's brother was one of them."
Also Saturday, an Interior Ministry police official and his guard were killed when five gunmen stormed his home in the Shaab neighborhood.
Seven other Iraqis were killed in three other incidents in Baghdad Sunday, including two policemen who died during an attack on Deputy Trade Minister Qais al-Hasan. The minister and six others were wounded in the attack.
Coalition troops foil ambush
Coalition troops in a central Iraqi city have killed six suspected insurgents and detained five other people, the U.S. military said Sunday.
According to the military statement, coalition forces in Taji saw the suspected insurgents Saturday night in an area where small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade attacks previously had taken place.
The suspected insurgents fired at military helicopters, causing the pilots to return fire, the statement said.
Taji is on the Tigris River, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
Pentagon report estimates civilian deaths
A recent U.S. military report estimates that nearly 26,000 Iraqis were killed or wounded by insurgent attacks from January 1, 2004, through September 16, 2005.
The number does not include civilians who may have been killed or wounded in coalition attacks nor does it include insurgents.
The figure was extrapolated from a bar graph on page 23 of the report, which shows average daily causalities since January 2004.
The report, "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq," was submitted to Congress on October 13, two days before Iraq's constitutional referendum.
"Approximately 80 percent of all attacks are directed against Coalition Forces, but 80 percent of all casualties are suffered by Iraqis," the report says.
The report says 85 percent of insurgent attacks occurred in four provinces -- Anbar, Baghdad, Ninevah and Salaheddin -- where 42 percent of the population lives.
The Web site IraqBodyCount.net, which is operated by a group of volunteers that tracks media reports of civilian fatalities, estimates that between 26,732 and 30,098 Iraqi civilians have been killed since January 1, 2003.
Other developments
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Sunday urged Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to move Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan Tikriti to a hospital for "life-saving treatment for cancer." Tikriti, who has been charged with crimes against humanity, last week requested to be released from custody for treatment of spinal cancer. In his letter to Jaafari, Talabani did not support Tikriti's call for release. But, citing a long-standing relationship between the Talabani and Tikriti families, he called "on the prime minister to use his authority to move Barzan Tikriti into a hospital for cancer treatment."
A pickup truck carrying dates and packed with explosives blew up, killing at least 25 people in a market in a small Shiite town north of Baquba on Saturday, an Interior Ministry official said. At least 52 people were wounded in the attack that targeted civilians in the town of Hwaider, Iraqi police said, and shops and restaurants were damaged. Hwaider is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
Three U.S. soldiers died Saturday, authorities said. Two of the U.S. troops who were killed Saturday were Task Force Baghdad soldiers on patrol in a southern part of the capital, the U.S. military said. They died in a blast from a roadside bomb. The third U.S. soldier died after the vehicle he was riding in struck a land mine southwest of Bayji, near Tikrit. Four other Task Force Liberty soldiers were wounded, two of whom returned to their unit. In the Iraq war, 2,014 U.S. service members have died, including 81 this month.
Two associates of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most powerful cleric in Iraq, said Friday the Shiite leader may demand a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops in 2006, according to The Associated Press. The AP reported the associates claimed the reclusive but influential leader is suspicious of the United States.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday, told Italian television station La7 that he tried repeatedly to dissuade Bush from going to war, the AP reported Saturday, citing excepts obtained by the Apcom and ANSA new agencies. Berlusconi, who is up for re-election in 2006, reportedly said in the interview, to be broadcast Monday, that "I was never convinced that war was the best system to bring democracy to the country."