BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric, along with the aide's son and four bodyguards in a town south of Baghdad, an official in the cleric's office said today.

Insurgents trying to derail Iraq's Jan. 30 elections appeared to be sending a message to al-Sistani, who strongly supports the vote. Insurgents have targeted electoral workers and candidates.

Elsewhere, gunmen opened fire on a minibus picking up a Turkish businessman from the Bakhan Hotel in central Baghdad today, killing six Iraqis and kidnapping the Turk, who reportedly ran a construction company that worked with U.S.-led occupation authorities.

Sheik Mahmoud Finjan, al-Sistani's representative in the town of Salman Pak, 10 miles southeast of Baghdad, was shot dead Wednesday night as he was returning home from a mosque where he performed the evening prayers, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The aide's son and four bodyguards also were killed, the official said at al-Sistani's office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Shiites make up 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people and are expected to dominate the 275-member National Assembly in the first free elections held in Iraq since it became independent in 1932. Some Sunnis, who are 20 percent of the population, fear a loss of the dominance and privilege they enjoyed for decades. Sunni clerics have called for a boycott.

Al-Sistani has urged Iraqis to vote, calling it a religious duty for every man and woman. The cleric is not running himself but is backing the 228 candidates from the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of 16 groups that includes Iraq's largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

If many Sunnis do boycott the vote, the United Iraqi Alliance stands to dominate the assembly, whose main job will be to write a permanent constitution.

The Turkish businessman, identified by police as Abdulkadir Tanrikulu, was abducted and the pavement in front of the hotel was stained with blood. Six Iraqis on board - the driver and five employees of the businessman - were killed, police Lt. Bassam al-Abed said.

A Turkish news channel said the construction company was working in Iraq with Americans. A hotel employee who gave only his first name, Alaa, said he had been in Iraq for about a year.

Insurgents have routinely targeted Iraqis and foreigners working with the U.S.-led coalition.

Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib also met police chiefs from around the country today to discuss security for this month's election.

"I would like to assure the Iraqi people that we will protect every citizen who will come forward to vote in the elections," al-Naqib said before the meeting, which was closed to the press.