One killed in Iraq's Erbil after vehicle explodes

One killed in Iraq's Erbil after vehicle explodes
An official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party was killed in a car bomb explosion in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, while two women and two children were injured
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The bomb attack took place in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil [Getty]

One person was killed and four were injured when a vehicle exploded in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil on Friday, the Kurdistan region's counter-terrorism service said.

An explosive device attached to the bottom of the car detonated at around 1 pm local time (1000 GMT), killing the driver and injuring two women and two children who were in the car, it said in a statement.

The counter-terrorism service has opened an investigation into the incident, the statement added.

A Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the driver who was killed as 41-year-old Hawkar Abdullah Rasoul and the two women injured as Rasoul's wife and sister.

Rasoul was a colonel in the PUK counter-terrorism service, the official said.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which controls the Kurdish government in the capital Erbil, and the PUK, which dominates areas along the Iranian border and is headquartered in Sulaimaniya, are the two main parties ruling the Iraqi Kurdish region.

(Reuters)