At least five people were killed and 34 others wounded Sunday in a car bombing in a mainly Sunni area northwest of Baghdad, police said, according to AP.
A police officer said the explosives-laden car was parked near sidewalk vendors at an outdoor market in Haditha, a city on the Euphrates 140 miles (220 kilometers) from Baghdad. The officer gave the casualty toll on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.
Sunday's blast is the latest in a series of attacks that have raised concerns about the abilities of Iraqi forces to protect the people as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011.
Haditha is in Anbar province, which was one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq until Sunni tribal leaders joined forces with the U.S. military to fight al-Qaida in Iraq.
Sunday's attack follows a series of blasts in the capital Baghdad over the past few days.
A bomb hidden inside a toilet struck a Sunni mosque south of Baghdad on Saturday, wounding two people, according to Iraqi police. A series of bombings targeted Shiite mosques a day earlier during Friday prayers in Baghdad, killing at least 29 people.
U.S. officials have warned they expect insurgents to try to re-ignite sectarian violence, which pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007. Violence has dropped sharply following a U.S. troop surge in 2007, a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a Shiite militia cease-fire.
But insurgents have demonstrated they remain capable of hitting targets in the heart of Baghdad and elsewhere, raising concerns about the capability of Iraqi security forces now that U.S. troops have pulled out of major urban centers.
U.S. officials have said they were optimistic that Shiite groups would exercise restraint in the face of Sunni attacks targeting their community. Bombings blamed on Sunni insurgents have often in the past been followed by mortar attacks and execution-style retaliatory killings.
Sunnis also have been targeted by their co-religionists, such as al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgent groups, who seek to undermine their cooperation with the Americans and the Shiite-led government.
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