Provincial Councilman Sadiq al-Huseini said the bomber detonated his explosives as Muthana al-Jourani, who is a Sunni candidate for the council, was hosting lunch for supporters in a large hospitality tent pitched next to his house in the mixed Sunni-Shiite city, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
Violence is expected to surge in the lead up to Iraq's provincial elections on April 20.
A health official and police officer who provided details about the attack spoke anonymously because they weren't authorized to speak to media.
The police officer said al-Jourani, who was injured in the attack, had not requested any extra security for the political event.
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There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the police officer said
the attack was the hallmark of al-Qaida militants who have used suicide bombers,
car bombings and coordinated attacks to shake security in Iraq, hoping that will
undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government. The hard-line Sunni
extremists see Shiites, and those who work with them, as heretics.
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A wave of deadly bombings and attacks in March prompted Iraqi
officials to conclude that al-Qaida's Iraqi branch, known as the
Islamic State of Iraq, has been getting stronger. They say rising
lawlessness on the Syria-Iraq frontier and cross-border cooperation
with the Syrian militant group Nusra Front has improved the
militants' supply of weapons, foreign fighters and logistics.
[Associated
Press; By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA]
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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