BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen today assassinated a member of an influential Sunni clerics' group that has called for a boycott of national elections, just a day after Iraqi officials announced the balloting would be held Jan. 30 in spite of rising violence in Iraq.

Sheik Faidh Mohamed Amin al-Faidhi, a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, was shot by gunmen at his home in northern Mosul - a sign of the continuing violence that wracks the country.

Iraq's first elections since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship are scheduled for Jan. 30, and Iraqi authorities said ballots will be cast even in volatile areas - including Fallujah, Mosul and other parts of the Sunni Triangle

The vote for the 275-member National Assembly is seen as a major step toward building democracy after years of Saddam's tyranny.

The ongoing violence, which escalated this month with the U.S.-led offensive against Fallujah, has raised fears voting will be nearly impossible in insurgency-torn regions - or that Sunni Arabs angry at the U.S.-Iraqi crackdown will reject the election. If either takes place, it could undermine the vote's legitimacy.

Elsewhere today, a U.S. patrol that came under attack returned fire, killing two attackers, according to eyewitnesses. The insurgents launched the attack in Hawija, about 150 miles north of Baghdad. The U.S. military had no immediate confirmation.

The former police chief of the northern city of Mosul was arrested after allegations that his force allowed insurgents to take over police stations during this month's uprising, Deputy Gov. Khasro Gouran said today.

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Kheiri Barhawi was arrested Sunday by Kurdish militia in northern Irbil, where he fled after he was fired in the wake of the uprising

Several loud explosions rocked central Baghdad today, sending a giant cloud of black smoke over the capital. The blasts seemed to hit the eastern side of the Tigris River, where several deadly car bombs were detonated last week.

Meanwhile, Iraq's leading Shiite cleric condemned the U.S.-Iraqi raid on a Sunni mosque in Baghdad on Friday, an official from his office said.

The official, who identified himself only as Sheik Besheer, said Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemned the raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque through his spokesman in an interview with Al-Manar television.

The Iraqi government has warned that Islamic clerics who incite violence will be considered as "participating in terrorism." Some already have been arrested, including members of the Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars.

Farid Ayar, spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, insisted that "no Iraqi province will be excluded because the law considers Iraq as one constituency, and therefore it is not legal to exclude any province."