(Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and eight others injured in a car bomb explosion in central of the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk on Monday, a local police chief said. The incident occurred at sunset when a booby-trapped car parked at the Salahudin Street in the Khan al-Tamr neighborhood, Brigadier Sarhat Abdul Qader told Xinhua.
The blast damaged several nearby shops, buildings and civilian cars, Qader said.
Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, is one of the disputed areas between the Kurds and both Arabs and Turkmans. The area has long been the hotbed of insurgency since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Sporadic attacks continue in Iraq as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country after more than three months of U.S. troops pullout of cities and towns.