Two Iraqi Sunni Muslim candidates were killed less than a week before local elections that are considered a major test of the country’s political stability after US troops left more than a year ago.

The election next Saturday to select provincial council members will measure Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s political muscle against Shi’ite and Sunni rivals before the parliamentary election in 2014.

Violence and suicide bombings have surged since the start of the year with a local al-Qaeda wing promising a campaign to stoke sectarian confrontation among Shi’ites, Sunni Muslims and ethnic Kurds.

No group claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks, but the two candidates killed since late Saturday night were moderate Sunnis campaigning in mostly Sunni areas where Islamist insurgents target political rivals.

Police said gunmen in Baiji town, 180 kilometres north of Baghdad, killed Hatem al-Dulaimi, who was connected to the al-Ensaf Front group headed by Sunni politician Mishaan al-Jubouri. Jubouri once ran a small block in Parliament.

“My cousin was secular, and his speech was moderate,” said Dulaimi’s cousin Ali Sabah. “I think those who killed him were the political groups with ties to the armed groups which operate in this area.”

Hours later yesterday morning, a roadside bomb killed Najim al-Harbi, with two of his brothers and a bodyguard in Diyala province, police said. Harbi had ties to Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni who has edged closer to Maliki since his Sunni-backed Iraqiya block splintered.

Another Sunni candidate escaped a separate roadside bomb in Balad Ruz, 90 kilometres northeast of the capital yesterday, authorities said.

Ten years after the US-led invasion, Sunni ranks are deeply divided over how to manage a power-sharing agreement with Maliki. Some moderate leaders work with the government but others see the Shi’ite premier as an authoritarian.