Shafaq News – Baghdad

A parliamentary candidate from Iraq’s Sunni-led Sovereignty Alliance was killed late Tuesday in a car bombing in Baghdad, hours after attending a national football match between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, security sources told Shafaq News.

The sources said the explosion targeted Safa al-Mashhadani while he was driving his Chevrolet Tahoe in Tarmiyah district, north of the capital. The blast killed him instantly and injured four others who were accompanying him.

According to initial investigations, a sticky bomb had been planted beneath the front passenger seat of al-Mashhadani’s vehicle while it was parked outside a restaurant in western Baghdad, where he had been watching the football match with four companions.

Witnesses said al-Mashhadani initially survived the explosion, and his friends tried to rescue him from the burning car, but he urged them to flee moments before the vehicle was engulfed in flames. The blast left his body severely burned and torn by shrapnel.

The Baghdad Operations Command later confirmed that the device was attached under the vehicle and announced that a full investigation was underway.

Al-Mashhadani was running in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for November 11, 2025, representing the Siyada (Sovereignty) Alliance, a major Sunni bloc led by businessman and politician Khamis al-Khanjar. The alliance won around 71 seats in the 2021 elections, making it the largest Sunni force in Iraq’s parliament.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has ordered the formation of a joint criminal investigation team to probe the assassination.

Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani—who shares the same surname but is not directly related to the slain candidate—condemned the killing as a “heinous act of terror” and called on authorities to “bring the perpetrators to justice without delay.”