BAGHDAD, May 7 (Xinhua) -- A candidate for Iraq's May 12 elections was stabbed to death by armed men at a village near Iraq's northern city of Mosul, a local police and a relative to the candidate told Xinhua.

The incident took place late on Sunday night when unknown men armed with knives broke into the house of Farouq Zarzour al-Jubouri, in the village of al-Lazzaga in south of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, and stabbed him to death before they fled the scene, Captain Ahmed al-Jubouri from the nearby Qayyara police said.

The candidate was competing in the polls within the Wataniyah Coalition, led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, Jubouri said, adding that an investigation was launched into the incident.

Ryadh al-Jubouri, relative to the victim told Xinhua that a group of men visited the house of the candidate, who is also a teacher at Tikrit University in Salahudin province, pretending as supporters for his campaign, but they slaughtered him before they left.

The vote of parliamentary election will be held on May 12, as around 7,000 candidates will compete for the 329 seats in the Iraqi parliament. This will be the first general election since Iraq's historical victory over the militant Islamic State group in December last year.

The security situation in Iraq has been dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants across the country late in 2017.

However, small groups and individuals of extremist militants melted or regrouped in urban and rugged areas, and are carrying out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite operations from time to time to hunt them down.????