Zebari, a prominent Kurdish politician, was not with the guards when the attackers struck in Sulayman Beg, south of the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police Colonel Abbas Mohammed Amin told AFP.

A civilian was also killed when gunmen opened fire on a car carrying five ministry guards, two of whom were wounded, Amin said.

The area where the ambush took place, near the border with Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, is notorious for attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents.