A car bomb killed eight members of a single family on Wednesday in Kirkuk, the city at the heart of a bitter feud between Iraq's Arabs and minority Kurds, Reuters reported.
The blast occurred near the home of an Arab leader of one of the pro-government local militia known as 'Awakening' councils, in the eastern part of the city, police said.
Major-General Jamal Taher Bakr, Kirkuk's police chief, said a displaced family from Iraq's Diyala province further south had been taking refugee in the house when it was hit.
The blast reduced to rubble at least one building, from which police and local residents pulled bodies after the blast. As distraught residents looked on, they wrapped corpses in bed sheets or mats and put them on the back of a pick-up truck.
Police and hospital sources said at least two people were wounded in the attack in Kirkuk, Iraq's northern oil hub, which lies 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad. At least one woman and a child were among the dead, they said.
Abdul Rahman Mustafa, a Kurdish politician who is governor of Kirkuk province, vowed to hunt down those responsible.
"What are these children and women guilty of that they should be targeted? The aim of such terror attacks is to ignite strife in Kirkuk," he said.