At least 12 people, mostly children, were killed Thursday in a bombing targeting members of an ethnic minority in northern Iraq, police said, dpa reported.
A truck loaded with explosives blew up at a building where members of the Shabak minority lived in the city of Mosul, reported the Iraqi independent broadcaster Alsumaria TV, citing security officials.
The dead included seven children and three women, according to the report. At least 48 were wounded.
The Shabak are mostly Shiite Muslims living in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh.
A sharp rise in attacks in recent months has raised fears of a return to the sectarian violence that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war in 2006-07.
According to UN estimates, 979 people were killed in September, making it one of the deadliest months in the last five years.