BAGHDAD: A car bomb exploded in a street market in the Iraqi town of Khalis on Thursday, killing 10 people and wounding 25, police and hospital officials said.
Authorities immediately imposed a curfew in Khalis, about 80 kilometres north of Baghdad.
“According to the witnesses, there was a parked civilian car bomb in the street market and it blew up and led to the deaths of 10 people,” said Major Ali al-Temimi of the Khalis police.
Diyala has a mixed population of Shia and Sunni Muslims.
"We counted 10 bodies and at least 20 wounded in the explosion of a car bomb parked near a vegetable market in Khalis," an Iraqi army colonel said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The casualty toll was confirmed by a medic at the main hospital in the Diyala provincial capital, Baquba.
"We received 10 bodies and admitted 25 wounded. Two policemen were among them," Firaz al-Dulaimi said.
Meanwhile Iraqi officials say gunmen have killed seven people in an attack on the home of a pro-government Sunni leader in the northeast of the country.
Faris al-Azawi, spokesman of the Diyaal province health directorate, said the gunmen stormed the house of the anti-al-Qaeda Sunni fighter early Thursday and shot him and six members of his family, who were sleeping inside.
Four others were wounded in the attack in Buhriz, a Sunni-dominated town.
