BAGHDAD— A bomb attached to a car in the Iraqi capital wounded five people Monday, including three bodyguards of a Shiite lawmaker, officials said.
A police official at the scene told The Associated Press that the legislator, Izzat Ashabander, was not in the convoy when it was targeted. He said the two other people wounded in the blast were bystanders.
Pools of blood could be seen on the ground next to a burnt-out pickup truck on the scene.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Although overall violence has decreased, bombings still happen several times a day in Iraq. Many analysts say they expect violence to increase in the run-up to the March polls.
Also on Monday, Iraqi officials announced they will soon begin new excavations based on reports of a new mass grave, near the holy city of Karbala.
Dr. Kamil Ameer Hashim, a spokesman for the ministry of human rights, said that the suspected grave site had not yet been opened and it was unclear how many people might be inside. Officials had decided on the location based on interviews with the families of the dead, he said.
Meanwhile, the remains of more than 70 people, including women, children and the elderly, have been excavated from a different mass grave in Topzawa near Kirkuk, he said. Officials began digging there two months ago but have not yet finished their work.
No one knows how many victims of former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime lie in mass graves around Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds were killed or expelled from Iraq in the late 1980s and then again during the Kurdish uprising following the first Gulf War in 1991. Many political prisoners were also killed and secretly buried. (AP)