Iraqi candidate survives attack, army strikes Syria for first time

A Sunni parliament candidate has survived an attempt on his life in Iraq's restive Anbar province, a local police official said on Sunday.

"A roadside explosive was detonated late Saturday night as the convoy of Mohamed al-Karbouli was passing in Al-Qa'im district [west of provincial capital Ramadi]," the official said.

An escort to Al-Karbouli was injured, but the candidate for the Sunni United for Reform electoral list survived the attack unharmed, the official said. Local police forces cordoned off the area as the escort was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment, he added.

As Iraq's pivotal parliamentary election scheduled for Wednesday nears, there has been an uptick in violence around the country. For the first time since Syria's civil war began in 2011, on Sunday, Iraq's military carried out an attack on Syrian soil.

An Iraqi army helicopter attacked a militant convoy inside eastern Syria as it tried to approach the border, killing at least eight people, an interior ministry spokesman said. 

"The army struck eight tanker trucks in Wadi Suwab inside Syrian territory as they were trying to enter Iraqi territory to provide the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) with fuel," Brigadier General Saad Maan said.

"There was no coordination with the Syrian regime" over the strike, Maan said. "Our responsibility now is to protect our border and to protect the border from the other side, because there is no protection from the other side."

In the first election since US troops withdrew from Iraq in late 2011, analysts say regional strife, including the Syrian civil war, could make neighbouring Iran, former occupier the US, Gulf nations and Syria silent voters influencing the process.

Internally, the predominantly Sunni Anbar province continues to witness fighting between government forces and militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group – said by Baghdad to be linked to al-Qaeda – who seized control of large swaths of Anbar's key cities of Ramadi and Anbar in December.

"The biggest challenge we face is the terrorist gangs trying to prevent the elections [from] happening on schedule by placing bombs on the road, targeting candidates and trying to stir up sectarian strife," Lieutenant General Abdul Amir al-Shammari, commander of Baghdad Operations, told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

Brigadier general Maan said there will be "failed attempts" at attacks, but intelligence should prevent them.

"Two days ago in Baghdad, we launched an operation to kill a group of terrorists," he told Al Jazeera. "And we discovered a cache of weapons and confiscated more than 20 improvised explosive devices that were ready to be used on election day. Prevention is only the first stage of our plan."