Baghdad - A bomb went off Thursday inside an Iraqi restaurant killing a policeman, a civilian and injuring another three, a police source said.

The blast took place in the Tal Afar district of Nineveh province, 405 kilometres north of the capital Baghdad, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported.

The director of Karbala provincial council was killed on Thursday and two of his assistants were injured when a bomb went off inside their car tas they were travelling to work, an official told VOI.

Also in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, witnesses said that an explosion struck a police checkpoint. The number of casualties is still unknown. Karbala is located 110 kilometres south of Baghdad.

In separate developments, an Iraqi lawmaker from the Sadrist bloc was seriously injured and his body guard was killed by a bomb blast in Baghdad, a medical source told VOI.

Sadrists are loyal to the militant Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr. Their bloc has 30 seats out of the 275-seat parliament. (dpa)