The attack took place near the office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

Kurdistan now is jointly ruled by two factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Seven people, including four children, also were wounded in Mosul in a mortar attack targeting the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

But there could also be a struggle within Iraqi Kurdistan , where Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party shares power with the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Mr Dakheel Kassim Hassoun said the blast targeted the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Sinjar, close to the Syrian border in northern Iraq.

On Saturday the central Baghdad offices of the Kurdistan Democratic party were burnt down by loyalists of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

The PUK is competing with its long-time rival the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the election as discontent grows with perceived corruption and economic hardship.

During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Masoud Barzani allied the Kurdistan Democratic Party that he had inherited from his father with Tehran once more.

May 4th: A suicide bomber kills more than 60 people at the Kurdistan Democratic Party office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil.