In Iraq, bombs kill 5

March 29, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

BAGHDAD

Several bombs exploded Sunday near a house linked to a prominent Sunni figure who ran in this month’s parliamentary elections in Iraq, killing five people and wounding 26 others, a police official said.

The attack adds to fears of post-election violence as bitter election rivals enter what are likely to be drawn-out talks on forming the next government to rule Iraq as U.S. troops leave by the end of 2011.

Sunday’s blasts took place in the town of Qaim, about 200 miles west of Baghdad, the official said.

The first bomb, planted at a house under construction, went off at 7 a.m. As onlookers gathered, four more bombs hidden in trash around the site detonated, causing the casualties.

The official said the house belongs to a brother of Sheik Murdhi Muhammad al-Mahalawi’s, a Sunni candidate who ran on the Iraqiya list led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the top vote-getter March.

Neither al-Mahalawi’s brother nor any construction workers were at the site when the bombs went off, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

The official had said the house belonged to al-Mahalawi but later he and a family member said it belonged to the candidate’s brother, Turki.

The win in March 7 parliamentary elections by Allawi’s secular bloc, which got 91 seats, two seats more than Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s group, reflected an extraordinarily close race.