Nine killed, 50 wounded in Iraq violence

At least nine people were killed in three attacks in Iraq on Saturday, including a car bomb in a northern Iraq market that claimed six lives and wounded 50, police and security said.

The deadly blast in Tal Afar targeted a busy market in Al-Wehda, a central area of the city about 450 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Among the wounded, 20 in a serious condition were rushed to a hospital in the Kurdish province of Dohuk.

Tal Afar is predominantly Shiite and west of Mosul, the capital of the province of Nineveh that is said by the US military to be the "last urban bastion of Al Qaeda" in Iraq.

Described in 2006 by US President George W Bush as a security model, Tal Afar has been one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq since March 2007.

On August 8, 21 people were killed in a similar attack on a market there, while on July 21 a car bomb exploded in another Tal Afar market, killing 12 people and wounding 30.

A massive truck bomb in the city claimed the lives of 152 people on March 27 last year.

Also on Saturday, three civilians - a man and two women in the same family - were killed by a roadside bomb about 10 kilometres south of the troubled city of Baquba, an Iraqi security source said.

Another bomb also exploded in central Baquba, wounding one person, according to the same source.

Baquba, about 60 kilometres east of Baghdad, is the capital of Diyala province where there has been a string of recent suicide bombings linked to Al Qaeda, making it one of the most dangerous regions in Iraq.