BAGHDAD (AP):

A powerful roadside bomb yesterday killed the governor and police chief of a southern provincethat has seen fierce internal fighting between Shiite factions, officials said.

The bomb struck a convoy carrying the Khalil Jalil Hamza, the governor of the Qadisiyah province, and the provincial police chief home from a funeral service for a tribal sheik at about 5 p.m., army Brig. Gen. Othman al-Farood said.

Hamza and the police chief, Maj. Gen. Khalid Hassan, were killed, along with their driver and a body guard who were in the same SUV, according to al-Farood, the commander of the Iraqi army division in charge of the area.

The attack occurred in the town of Aajaf, as the convoy was headed back to the provincial capital of Diwaniyah, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Baghdad.

Heavy clashes

Diwaniyah has been the site of heavy clashes between U.S.-Iraqi security forces and Shiite militia fighters. The area also has seen a rise in internal rivalries between rival militia forces, including the Mahdi Army that is loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on the city.

In Baghdad, militants bombed the house of a prominent anti-al-Qaida Sunni cleric, seriously wounding him and killing three of his relatives in what appeared to be an increased campaign against Sunnis who have turned against the terror network.

That attack, which was followed by a fierce firefight, came after Sheik Wathiq al-Obeidi called on residents in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Azamiyah to rise up against foreign fighters, a reference to al-Qaida in Iraq, which recently has seen a surge in opposition from fellow Sunnis.

A Sunni insurgent umbrella group threatened the cleric on Tuesday, calling him a traitor and accusing him of working with the Anbar Salvation Council, an alliance of Sunni tribal leaders who are fighting al-Qaida in Iraq in the province of the same name west of Baghdad.

Legitimate target

"The so-called Wathiq and his followers ... are a legitimate target for mujahedeen (holy warriors)," the statement said.

Followers denied the cleric, a former preacher at the Abu Hanifa mosque, was linked to the U.S.-backed Anbar group.

But he issued his own call against al-Qaida in Iraq last week during a funeral prayer for two nephews killed by militants believed to be linked to the group.

"We have to fight foreign fighters in our city," witnesses quoted him as saying. "We have to fight those linked to al-Qaida in Azamiyah."

The explosion struck al-Obeidi's house before dawn and was followed by gunfire that resounded across the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood.

The cleric, a former preacher at the Abu Hanifa mosque, was seriously wounded and his brother and two female relatives were killed, according to the head of the neighbourhood council Dawood al-Azami.

Azamiyah is one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Baghdad and has been surrounded by a security barrier as the U.S. and Iraqi militaries try to assert control over the area.