A car bomb exploded north of the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing two people and injuring four others, including a deputy provincial governor, police said.
The car exploded in Khalis, about 70km north of Baghdad, said General Waleed al-Azawi, chief of police for Diyala province.
Bassam al-Khadran, one of several deputy governors working in the province, was injured in the blast. Both fatalities and the three other injured were al-Khadran’s bodyguards, al-Azawi said.
The car, laden with explosives, was believed to have been detonated by remote control as al-Khadran was travelling to work in a small convoy, al-Azawi said.
It was not known who carried out the attack.
The United States Army’s First Infantry Division, which is deployed throughout the area, had no immediate comment.
On August 9, a separate car bomb attack in Diyala killed seven police officers in an apparent attempt to assassinate another deputy governor, Aqil Hamid al-Adili, who was wounded in the blast.
Guerrillas waging a yearlong insurgency in Iraq have repeatedly used car bombs to attack top officials of the interim government, Iraqi security forces and American troops. — Sapa-AP