A suicide bomber targeted the home of a top counterterrorism official in western Iraq on Wednesday, killing two of the man's brothers and wounding six others in the second attack on the house this year, Iraqi police said.

The attacker wore an explosive vest that he detonated inside the home of Lt. Col. Walid al-Heeti, the counterterrorism bureau chief in the western Iraqi town of Heet. Two of al-Heeti's brothers died in the blast, while six construction workers - who were rebuilding the house after a January bombing - were wounded., police in Baghdad said.

Al-Heeti was unharmed, police said.

The January attack was one of a series of bombings that left six people dead and seven wounded. Officials said attackers planted explosives in small fuel containers outside four houses in Heet, about 160 km (100 miles) west of Baghdad.

The area is in a part of Iraq that was once dominated by the Sunni Arab insurgency that followed the U.S. invasion of 2003 and was a stronghold of Islamic jihadists loyal to al Qaeda in Iraq. The region has become a model of progress in the battle against the jihadists since tribal leaders turned against them in 2006.