An Iraqi provincial governor was blown up by a roadside bomb on Monday in what appeared to be an escalation of a power struggle between rival Shi'ite factions that threatens to destabilize the oil-producing south.

Mohammed Ali al-Hassani, governor of Muthanna province, was on his way from his home in the city of Rumaitha to Samawa, the provincial capital, when his convoy of nine cars was hit by a powerful roadside bomb, provincial officials said.

Hassani was the second provincial leader to be killed in two weeks. The governor of southern Diwaniya province, a fellow member of the powerful Shi'ite Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), was blown up by a roadside bomb on August 11.