Al Bawaba: A prominent Iraqi singer who used to glorify deposed president Saddam Hussein was assassinated by unidentified armed men in his Baghdad home, neighbours said Sunday.

"I saw three people driving in a pickup truck around the neighbourhood at 6.30pm Saturday (local time). At 6.45pm, one of them came to the gate of the garden where Daoud al-Qaissi was standing and started talking to him," Samir Doush said, according to AFP. "He was joined by an accomplice who fired at Qaissi's head. The bullet pierced through the glass of the house," he said, adding that the three then sped away.

Qaissi, who was in his fifties, presided over the union of Iraqi artists, and had mobilized singers, poets, actors and painters during the US-led war on Iraq to sing the praises of the Baath regime and the army.