A series of explosions in western Iraq killed six people Sunday, including an official of a political faction in former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's electoral coalition, police said.
The bombs were placed near the house of Ghanim Radhi, a member of the Development and Reforms movement, in the town of Qaim near the border with Syria, 185 miles west of Baghdad, Reuters reported. Radhi and one of his brothers were killed.
Four other people were killed at the scene but police gave no details of their identities.
Radhi did not stand in the parliamentary election on March 7 but his movement is a minor faction in Allawi's secular Iraqiya list, which emerged with the most seats according to preliminary results released Friday.
The Development and Reforms movement won three seats in the election in predominantly Sunni Anbar province.
The Associated Press reported that a first bomb, which went off at 7 a.m. local time, was planted at a house under construction. As onlookers gathered, four more bombs hidden in trash littered around the house detonated.
The house belongs to Sheik Murdhi Muhammad al-Mahalawi, a Sunni candidate who ran on the Iraqiya list led by Allawi, The Associated Press reported. Allawi was the top vote-getter in the March 7 balloting.
Neither al-Mahalawi nor any construction workers were at the site when the bombs went off.
Two days before the explosions, Iraqiya premises were damaged by fire in the southern province of Karbala, a Shiite religious center.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known and Iraqiya officials said an investigation was under way to determine whether it was sabotage or an electrical failure.
Anbar had been relatively quiet since 2006 when Sunni Muslim tribal leaders turned on Sunni Islamist groups such as al-Qaida, which had once dominated it, but insurgents continue to operate in the vast desert province.
Overall, violence has dropped sharply in the past few years but a series of explosions in recent weeks has illustrated the fragility of Iraqi security.
