Bombing near Iraq ex-PM's office

Iyad Allawi was not in at the time of the attack

A suicide car bomber has attacked premises belonging to former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi.

Two guards were killed in the attack in an area of western Baghdad where a senior Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, also has offices.

Mr Allawi - a Shia who was prime minister between June 2004 and April 2005 - was not in at the time.

Violence in the Iraqi capital has dropped significantly following a US troop surge earlier in the year.

However, there has been a series of bomb attacks in the past week.

The area where the latest attack took place is popular with politicians and officials because it is close to the Green Zone, where the government has many offices.

Mr Mutlaq - who was in Jordan at the time of the attack - told the AP news agency that he had converted a house into offices after his previous offices were attacked.

He said the attack was another demonstration that it was time to re-build the Iraqi police and army.