Unknown gunmen shot dead a Shiite cleric in a western Baghdad district on Saturday, a police source said.

"Unidentified armed men open fire on Abdul Hadi Muhiey, Imam of a Shiite Husseiniyah (mosque) in the Adil district as he was leaving the Husseiniyah after a prayer," Captain Ahmed Abdullah, from Baghdad police told Xinhua.

Sectarian tensions rise in some of Baghdad neighborhoods where killings and explosions are underway despite the government's national reconciliation efforts and the pact of honor among the Iraqi factions to stop bloodshed.

Source: Xinhua