Bomb kills senior Iraqi lawmaker

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A roadside bomb explosion in the Iraqi capital has killed a senior member of the Sadr Movement's influential parliamentary bloc, a party official told CNN Thursday.

"We hold the occupation forces responsible for the assassination of Saleh al-Ageili because they are the ones who are in charge of the security control in the capital," Sadr Movement official Abdul-Mahdi al-Mutayri told CNN.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered top government and military officials to lead the investigation "to determine the circumstances behind the terrorist operation that targeted the destabilization of security and the stability."

The investigation committee will be led by Interior Minister Jawad al-Bulani and senior Iraqi military officials, he said.

Al-Maliki also sent his condolences to the Sadr Movement and to the people of Iraq regarding the lawmaker's "martyrdom."

"We reaffirm that we are determined with the resolution of the loyal people of Iraq to detect the hotbeds of terrorism and crime, and prosecute and arrest the killers and bring them to justice," according to a statement from al-Maliki.

Al-Ageili was initially wounded in the attack, along with three of his bodyguards, but later died of his injuries at a hospital. The blast also left two bystanders dead.

The political group is affiliated with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia has observed a cease-fire that has contributed to a sharp drop in the sectarian warfare that ravaged Iraq for a year and a half.

The attack on al-Ageili's convoy took place in eastern Baghdad's Habibiya district about 10 a.m. Thursday.

In a separate attack Thursday, a roadside bomb struck a minibus carrying a local Awakening Council leader and his family north of Baghdad, killing the leader and his son, according to Iraq's interior ministry.

The attack in the town of Balad Ruz, located about 25 miles (40 km) east of Baquba, also wounded seven women and a child, the ministry said.

Awakening councils are composed largely of former Sunni insurgents who turned against al Qaeda in Iraq. The groups are also credited with helping reduce violence in Iraq.

In other incidents:

A roadside bomb went off in the Mudhafar square in eastern Baghdad Thursday morning, killing one person and wounding four others, including two police officers, the Interior Ministry said.

A bomb left in a plastic bag exploded Thursday afternoon inside a restaurant in the northern town of Tal Afar, killing two people and wounding three others, the ministry said. Tal Afar is about 43 miles (70 km) west of Mosul.

Iranian forces early Thursday shelled border villages in northern Iraq's Sulaimaniya province where Kurdish rebels are thought to be operating, a Kurdish Regional Government official said. No one was wounded in the attack, which began around midnight and lasted 90 minutes.

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