Bomb kills 2 Politicians in Iraq

                      
Iraqi officials said that a bomb attack on Tuesday targeted an armored vehicle, leaving two local politicians dead and injuring a third in the town of Tuz Khurmatu north of Baghdad.                   

The explosion also killed one of the group's bodyguards and wounded another, according to a police colonel and a medical source at the local hospital.                         

Town mayor Shallal Abdul, city council chief Abdulqader Naimi and Salaheddin provincial councilor Rashid Khorshid were set to inspect together a road paving project north of Tuz when the bomb went off.                     

Naimi and Khorshid, both candidates in provincial elections set to be held on April 20, were killed, and Abdul was badly wounded and transported to a hospital in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.                          

The region of Tuz Khurmatu lies at the center of a disputed territory that is claimed by both the mostly-Arab central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region.                     

Tensions there have been intensified since last year, when clashes broke out during an attempt by Iraqi forces to arrest a Kurdish man in the town, prompting Iraq's parliament speaker to warn that growing tensions could lead to a civil war.