Gunmen killed the sister of Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi in Baghdad this morning, Interior Ministry sources said.
They said Meysoun al-Hashemi was shot in the Hay al- Ilaam section of Baghdad. The killing comes after one of Mr Hashemi's brothers was killed on April 13th. Mr Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, was appointed on Saturday in efforts to form a unity government.
The brother of another leading Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlak, was found dead this month after he was kidnapped.
Mr Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party is the largest in the main Sunni political bloc and was the first Sunni Islamist party to join the political process, which US and Iraqi officials hope will defuse the Sunni insurgency.
Mr Hashemi made his first public appearance as vice president yesterday at a news conference with President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Shia Adel Abdul Mahdi, the other vice president in the new administration.
They vowed to press ahead with efforts to form a national unity government they hope can avert a sectarian civil war.