Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, July 6 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb went off near the convoy of a Kurdish party member in Diyala province on Sunday, killing eight people and wounding two others, a provincial police source said.

    The attack took place near the town of Qara Tabbah, some 150 km northeast of Baghdad when a roadside bomb hit the convoy of Muhammad Ramadhan Issa, local leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), killing him, five of his family members and two bodyguards, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Two of Issa's bodyguards were also wounded by the attack, the source said.

    PUK, headed by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, is one of the two main Kurdish parties in Iraq.