Baghdad  - The leader of Iraq's Islamic Party was shot and killed in an apparent assassination in Mosul province, a party spokesman said Thursday.

Unknown gunmen killed Mahmoud Younis and one of his companions before fleeing. Younis had been on his way to work in the province some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, Mohammed Shakir al-Ghannam told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

The Islamic Party is part of Iraqi's Sunni parliamentary bloc.

Younis was also a preacher at the Imam Basher mosque and the director of Islamic secondary education at the Sunni Endowment department. (dpa)