An Iraqi professor and prominent Sunni political activist was shot dead by unknown gunmen in a western Baghdad neighborhood on Monday, the influential Sunni Association said in a statement.

Esam al-Rawi, head of Iraqi Professors' Association and a key member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, was gunned down when his car was attacked by three gunmen's drive-by shooting in the Dawoodi neighborhood, said the statement.

The gunmen killed Rawi and wounded two others who were accompanying him near his house, the statement added.

The Association of Muslim Scholars said that up to 180 of its members have been killed in Iraq since the country fell into sectarian violence following U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The Sunni body was always opposing any political process in Iraq under the U.S. occupation.

Source: Xinhua