A car bomb attack targeted an election candidate in Iraq's contested Kirkuk city on Sunday, killing one person and wounding 11, a security official said.

The blast in the multi-ethnic city, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of Baghdad, came as war-torn Iraq gears up for legislative elections on May 12.

"A civilian was killed and 11 people were injured, including three bodyguards, in the convoy of Ammar Hadaya Kahya, a candidate for the Turkmen Front in Kirkuk," the security source said on condition of anonymity.

There were no immediate claims of responsbility for the attack.

Iraqi troops last year seized the vital oil-rich Kirkuk region from Kurdish forces after a controversial vote for independence in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish zone.

Turkmens largely welcomed the return of government control forces, years after the Kurds took over the area amid the chaos of the Islamic State group's march across Iraq in 2014.

Since the return of Baghdad's forces, the region has seen clashes between Kurdish fighters and Turkmen units of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary forces, officially controlled by the government.

Candidate Kahya is an advisor to Falah al-Fayadh, who official heads the Hashed.

Elections in Iraq have typically been accompanied by violence since the ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein by the US-led invasion in 2003.

Bloodshed has subsided in recent months, but several deadly attacks have taken place.

Four people were killed and several wounded last Sunday in an IS suicide attack on the headquarters of a political party in Anbar.

The Iraqi government declared victory over IS in December after pushing the jihadists out of their final holdouts along the border with Syria.

But the group retains the capacity to strike despite losing control of vast swathes of Iraqi territory it seized in 2014.

Iraq election campaigning begins amid controversy
Baghdad, Iraq (AFP) April 14, 2018 –

Campaigning began Saturday for Iraqi parliamentary elections with some candidates embroiled in controversy after aides pulled down pictures of fighters killed in combat with jihadists and replaced them with their own posters.

Around 7,000 candidates have registered to stand in the May 12 poll, with 329 parliamentary seats up for grabs.

As the clock struck midnight on Friday, volunteer workers spread across the country to put up posters of the candidates, AFP reporters said.

"At midnight sharp, they began pulling down pictures of the martyrs and replaced them with posters of the thieves," said Baghdad resident Settar Tourki.

Martyrs refer to the thousands of government forces and allied militiamen killed fighting to push back the Islamic State group after the jihadists launched a sweeping offensive in 2014.

Pictures of these forces killed in combat dot the streets of Baghdad and major cities and towns.

Social media users cried foul as pictures of politicians, referred to by some in Iraq as "thieves" over allegations of corruption, replaced those of combatants.

Facebook user Laith al-Shommari denounced what he called an "insult" to the memory of fighters "who have sacrificed their lives so that we can live in peace and security".

"We should burn the electoral posters of all these cowards and opportunists," he said referring to the candidates.

The May elections will be the fourth parliamentary and provincial assembly polls since the ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein in a US-led invasion in 2003.

Iraq is the 12th most corrupt country in the world, according to international rankings.