A bomb exploded near the offices of a senior Shi'ite cleric in the Iraqi holy city of Kerbala on today, killing eight people and wounding 32, police and doctors said.
One of the wounded was Sheikh Abdul Mehdi al-Karbalai, a cleric regarded as close to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
The attack came on the day campaigning began for
At least four of those killed worked as guards in Karbalai's office, hospital sources said. The wounded were mostly office staff and passers-by. The office is in the centre of Kerbala, close to the shrine of Imam Hussein, one of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam.
Sites near Kerbala's shrines were previously attacked in March this year when suicide bombers blew themselves up during an important religious festival, killing more than 70 pilgrims.
That attack coincided with a blast at a Shi'ite shrine in Baghdad, which killed more than 50 people. The co-ordinated blasts were blamed on Jordanian Sunni Muslim militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and seen as an attempt to sow sectarian discord. Sistani, an elderly Iranian-born cleric who has a huge following in
He has representatives who follow his religious teachings in Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) southwest of Baghdad. A blast at the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf in August last year killed scores of people, including Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, one of
Iraq 's most influential Shi'ite leader. Hospital sources said he had been hit in the legs and was receiving treatment. Iraq 's first post-Saddam elections. One of the groups contesting the poll is a list of mainly Shi'ite candidates backed by Sistani, but it was not immediately clear if there was any political motive for the bombing. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Iraq , lives in Najaf, another holy city southeast of Kerbala. Iraq 's most revered clerics.