Iraqis carry the coffin of Abdalkareem Aldusari and his election campaign poster during a funeral procession in Basra yesterday. Aldusari, a Sunni candidate in Iraq’s legislative elections, was killed by unknown gunmen on Friday when they opened fire on his car.

AFP

Baghdad

Attacks in Iraq killed 15 people yesterday in the run-up to next week’s first parliamentary election since US troops withdrew, with violence at its worst in years.

Shootings and blasts in the capital came a day after a twin bombing by a jihadist group on a Shia political rally there killed 36 people, the deadliest single attack during campaigning for Wednesday’s polls.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is seeking a third term, with voters citing a long list of grievances ranging from poor electricity and sewerage services to rampant corruption and high unemployment.

A bomb inside a central Baghdad cafe killed three people yesterday, and gunmen killed four others in shootings around the capital, security and medical officials said.

In Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, a series of attacks left eight people dead.

In one incident, gunmen killed four soldiers, while militants elsewhere in the province killed a provincial councillor and three of his guards.

Also in Salaheddin, insurgents detonated bombs at two polling centres but did not cause any casualties.

A police officer said at least two of the Baghdad assassinations appeared to be revenge attacks for Friday’s twin bombings targeting the political rally.

Friday evening’s car bomb followed by a suicide attack hit a rally for the Sadiqun bloc, the political wing of the Asaib Ahel al-Haq (League of the Righteous) militia, killing 36 people.

The League of the Righteous, a Shia militia previously blamed for killing US soldiers and kidnapping Britons, has been linked to groups fighting mostly Sunni rebels in Syria, whose civil war has split the Middle East’s sectarian communities, particularly in multi-confessional Iraq.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed the attack, saying it wanted to avenge the League’s involvement in neighbouring Syria.

Earlier yesterday, the League of the Righteous held funerals for several of the victims in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, where Shias are typically buried.

“Defending holy sites in Syria, and our support for the (Iraqi) state and security forces in their war against terrorism pushed these criminals to target us,” one mourner said.

Iraqis will vote with no sign of a let-up in the violence, and the country still needing to rebuild after decades of conflict and sanctions.