The attack adds to fears of post election violence as the bitter election rivals enter what are expected to be drawn out talks on forming the next government that will rule Iraq as US troops leave by the end of 2011.

Sunday’s blasts took place in the town of Qaim, about 320 kilometers west of Baghdad and on the border with Syria, the police official said. The first bomb, planted at a house under construction, went off at 7 a.m. in a busy area of Qaim. As onlookers gathered, four more bombs hidden in trash littered around the site detonated, causing the casualties.

The official said the house belongs to a brother of Sheikh Murdhi Muhammad Al-Mahalawi, a Sunni candidate who ran on the Iraqiya list led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, the top vote-getter in the March 7 balloting.

Neither Al-Mahalawi’s brother nor any construction workers were at the site when the bombs went off, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The win in March 7 parliamentary elections by Allawi’s secular bloc, which got 91 seats, two seats more than Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s group, reflected an extraordinarily close race.

Allawi’s road to regaining the premiership is not certain. Al-Maliki angrily denounced the election outcome and his supporters have vowed to fight the results.