Baghdad-  A car bomb exploded Tuesday near the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in eastern Mosul, killing four people and injuring one, a security source told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

The blast appears to be one of a string of politically-targeted attacks that have occurred in recent weeks, as Iraq gears up for provincial council elections on January 31.

The dead included four Iraqi army officers," the source said. A member of Kurdish milita forces, or Peshmerga, was also wounded.

Mosul, the capital city of Nineveh province, lies some 400 km north of Baghdad.

In Baghdad, three policemen were wounded in a blast that occurred in the centre of the city, according to security forces.

A bomb went off near Uqba Bin Nafie Square as a police patrol vehicle was passing the location, the source told Voices of Iraq news agency.

On Monday, unknown gunmen killed a civil servant working for the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) in the Yarmouk neighbourhood in the eastern part of Mosul.

The IHEC is a nine-member panel charged with overseeing balloting in the January 31 provincial elections.

In the city of Hilla, capital of Babil province, an independent candidate running for the municipal elections in Iraq escaped injury when unknown gunmen opened fire on his house on Saturday.

That assassination attempt came a week after gunmen killed Haitham al-Lihaibi, a candidate for the Babil provincial council affiliated with the party of Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki. (dpa)