By Fadhil al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - A series of explosions in western Iraq killed six people on Sunday, including an official of a political faction in former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's electoral coalition, police said.
They said four bombs went off near the house of Ghanim Radhi, a member of the Development and Reforms movement, early Sunday in the town of Qaim, 300 km (185 miles) west of Baghdad in Anbar province. Radhi and one of his brothers, who is a junior member in the movement, were killed.
The first two bombs went off and when people gathered in the area after the blast, two more exploded, said Luai Mohammed, a relative of Radhi's who was at the scene.
"The street was full of people, some were lying motionless and others were screaming in pain," he told Reuters.
Police said four other people were killed but gave no details of their identities. They said 15 people were wounded.
Radhi did not stand in the parliamentary election on March 7 but his movement is a minor faction in Allawi's secular Iraqiya list which emerged with the most seats, according to preliminary results released on Friday.
Two days before the explosions, Iraqiya premises were damaged by fire in the southern province of Kerbala, a Shi'ite religious centre.
The cause of the fire, which was on Friday night after the release of the election results, was not immediately known. Iraqiya officials said an investigation was under way to determine whether it was sabotage or an electrical failure.
The Development and Reforms movement won three seats in the election in predominantly Sunni Anbar province.
Overall, violence in Iraq has dropped sharply in the past few years but a series of explosions in recent weeks has illustrated the fragility of security in the country.
Anbar had been relatively quiet since 2006 when Sunni Muslim tribal leaders turned on Sunni Islamist groups such as al Qaeda, which had once dominated it, but insurgents continue to operate in the vast desert province.
On Friday, few hours before election results were released, two bombs struck a crowded market in Iraq's mainly Sunni northern Diyala province killing 59 and wounding 73, in one of the country's deadliest attacks in months.
(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami and Muhanad Mohammed; Writing by Rania El Gamal; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
