BAGHDAD — Three masked gunmen in a speeding Opel assassinated a second lawyer in the Saddam Hussein trial Tuesday, casting doubt on Iraq's ability to try the case and leading a prominent war crimes prosecutor to urge moving the proceedings to another Arab country.

Adel al-Zubeidi, lawyer for former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, died when bullets sprayed his car in a largely Sunni Arab neighborhood of western Baghdad. The shots also wounded Thamir al-Khuzaie, attorney for another co-defendant, Saddam's half brother Barazan Ibrahim.

The brazen daylight attack on a major avenue came three weeks after the kidnap-slaying of another defense lawyer, Saadoun al-Janabi. His body was found Oct. 20, one day after the trial's opening session, where he represented Awad al-Bandar, a former official in Saddam's Baath Party.

No group claimed responsibility for the killings. An Iraqi government spokesman pointed to Saddam loyalists for the latest attack, while the dictator's lawyer blamed the Shiite-dominated government.

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Regardless of who was responsible, the killing of another defense lawyer reinforced grave misgivings among human rights groups and international lawyers about holding the trial in a country gripped by a brutal insurgency — much of it led by the defendants' supporters in the Sunni Arab minority.

"I don't understand how you can have a fair trial in this atmosphere of insecurity, with bombs going off," said Richard Goldstone, the first prosecutor at the U.N. tribunal for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and one of the world's most prominent jurists.

He told The Associated Press by telephone that Iraq's government should consider shifting the trial to an Arab country "where there is security."

Laith Kubba, spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, brushed aside that idea and insisted the next session would proceed in Baghdad as planned Nov. 28. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Washington would support Iraq as it proceeds with the trial.

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