Iraqi officials said a car bomb attack on a Sunni politician who heads Baghdad's Islamic University has killed four students and wounded 10 other people.
Authorities said Ziyad al-Ani escaped unharmed in Wednesday's attack on his convoy as it traveled through a Sunni area, Adhamiyah, just north of the Iraqi capital. Two of his bodyguards were among the injured.
Ani belongs to the Iraqi Islamic Party, a large Sunni Arab faction in parliament.
Wednesday's attack came ahead of Iraq's provincial elections on January 31. Two politicians have already been murdered, and Iraqi security officials fear more violence in the days leading up to the vote.
On Sunday, Iraqi officials said a suicide bomb attack near the northern city of Mosul killed a deputy leader of the Sunni "National Dialogue Front."
Last week, gunmen assassinated a Shi'ite candidate who was traveling to a campaign appearance near the town of Jbala.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
