In Iraq, there has been a huge explosion near the headquarters of the political party of the country’s unelected Prime Minister Iyad Allawi after a suicide bomber drove a taxi into a police vehicle at a security checkpoint. At least 2 people were killed and 23 wounded. And the attack happened just minutes before Allawi’s Iraqi National Accord bloc was due to announce its election candidates.

The latest bombing comes a day after suicide car bombers struck a bus packed with Iraqi National Guard troops north of Baghdad, killing 26 people. It was the deadliest assault on Iraqi security forces since October, when insurgents gunned down about 50 Guardsmen at a fake checkpoint. The car bomb went off as the bus passed a U.S. base in Balad in the so-called Sunni Triangle.