A town member of the province of Diwaniyah has been killed by unknown gunmen in the southern Iraqi province, a local police source says.

The house of Jawad Khalid, town hall council member in Saniyah, was stormed by unidentified armed men on Thursday, who shot him to death.

Saniyah, a predominantly Shia town, is located near the capital city of Diwaniyah, some 180 km south of Baghdad.

Khalid is also a key member of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), a Shia political party headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the source said.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb explosion injured Lamiya Mohammad al-Dabbagh, a female member of the Nineveh provincial council.

Four civilians were also wounded by the blast that hit Dabbagh's convoy in a thoroughfare in northern Mosul, the source said.

Dabbagh ran under the al-Hadbaa ticket for Nineveh provincial council in the country's Jan. 31 provincial elections. Al-Hadbaa is a coalition grouping which opposes Kurdish influence in Nineveh province. It won almost half of the votes cast.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, is said to be one of the last strongholds of al-Qaeda fighters in the war-torn country.

HSH/SME/HAR