Militants kidnapped an Iraqi election candidate Sunday as attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq killed nine people and officials prepared to announce the results of last month's election.

The latest unrest is part of a year-long surge in bloodshed that has fuelled fears Iraq is slipping back into the all-out sectarian conflict that left tens of thousands dead in 2006 and 2007.

In the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Jamila, gunmen opened fire on Rahman Abdulzahra al-Jazairi early on Sunday morning while he was near his home, wounding his father and brother, police said.

The militants then snatched Jazairi, the general secretary of Hezbollah Warithun, an offshoot of the main Hezbollah party in Iraq.

Jazairi's party is not expected to win any seats in parliament following the April 30 vote, the results of which are due to be released later Sunday or on Monday, election commission officials say.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the kidnapping, but Jazairi's party said on Facebook that security camera footage had helped identify the militants behind the incident and said security forces were working to release him.

The abduction is the first incident of its kind since the election, the run-up to which was plagued by attacks on campaign rallies and candidates, but no reported kidnappings.

The election results have been delayed because of a litany of complaints, according to the election commission.

But Iraq's political parties have nevertheless already begun manoeuvring to build alliances in order to get a head start on forming a government.

Incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is seeking a third term, but faces criticism from opponents who say he has consolidated power and who blame him for a marked deterioration in security.

Elsewhere on Sunday, attacks killed nine people in Baghdad and north of the capital near Balad and Qaiyarah, security and medical officials said, the latest in a surge of bloodshed that has left more than 3,500 people dead this year.

The authorities have trumpeted a series of wide-ranging operations against militants, the latest of which they say killed 85 insurgents on Sunday, but levels of violence have remained at their worst since 2008.

The government has blamed external factors such as the civil war in neighbouring Syria, but diplomats and analysts say Maliki and other Shiite leaders must do more to reach out to disgruntled Sunnis to undermine support for militancy.

Iran urges Iraq to extradite exiled dissidents
Tehran (AFP) May 18, 2014 - Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani has called on his Iraqi counterpart to extradite exiled Iranian opposition members so that they could stand a "fair trial" in Tehran, media reported Sunday.

Iraq hosts an estimated 3,000 members of the People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) who are living in exile in Iraq and based in a former military camp near Baghdad airport.

"Considering that PMOI members are criminals who have assassinated more than 17,000 Iranians, one of our requests to Iraq's justice chief is to extradite them to Iran, so that they could be held accountable for their crimes," Larijani said, according to Fars news agency.

"Most of these people have confessed to their crimes and we expect our friend and brother country to extradite them within the legal framework, so that they would be tried fairly," Larijani added.

He was speaking at the end of a meeting with the visiting Iraqi chief justice, Medhat al-Mahmud, media said.

In March, Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Danaeifar, was quoted as told the Mehr news agency that Tehran was ready to pardon 423 PMOI members, after investigation showed they are not guilty of any crimes.

The leftwing PMOI was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah it took up arms against Iran's clerical rulers and Tehran holds it responsible for murdering thousands of Iranian civilians and officials.

The group set up camp in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's war with Iran in the 1980s, but was disarmed after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 toppled Saddam.

Today's Shiite-majority and Iran-friendly government in Baghdad is eager to see it move elsewhere.

In April Iranian Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi travelled to Iraq to sign several memoranda of understanding, including the extradition of criminals.

In 2012, the United State removed the PMOI group from its terror blacklist, in a move strongly condemned by Iran.

Scores of PMOI members have been killed in attacks since US troops withdrew from Iraq at the end of 2011.