NINEVEH, Iraq

Unidentified attackers on Monday killed a parliamentary candidate south of Mosul, regional capital of Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, according to a local police source.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Police Colonel Ahmed al-Jabouri identified the slain candidate as Faruk Mohamed Zarzor.

“The attackers broke into Zarzor’s home at 3 a.m. [local time] in the village of Al-Zaka in Mosul’s southern Qayyarah sub-district,” al-Jabouri said.

According to the police officer, the assailants stabbed the parliamentary candidate to death before fleeing the scene of the crime.

Police are now carrying out extensive search operations in hopes of finding the assailants, al-Jabouri said.

Early Monday afternoon, the Daesh terrorist group -- using Telegram, an instant-messaging application -- appeared to claim responsibility for Zarzor’s murder. 

Zarzor had been a candidate for the National Iraqi Alliance, a political coalition led by former Vice-President Ayad Allawi.

Iraq is gearing up to hold elections on Saturday (May 12) in which more than 7,300 candidates will vie for seats in Iraq’s 328-member parliament. 

The poll will be the country’s first election since Daesh was decisively defeated late last year after overrunning much of northern and western Iraq in mid-2014. 

Some 24 million people -- out of Iraq’s roughly 37-million-strong population -- will be eligible to cast ballots in the election.