A car bomb exploded in a crowded market place in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing at least six people and wounding six others.
"Many cars were set ablaze and many shops heavily damaged due to the powerful explosion," said a police spokesman.
Violence has dipped sharply in Iraq over the past 18 months but attacks remain common in volatile areas like the oil city of Kirkuk, the northern city of Mosul and in Baghdad.
Kirkuk is one of several flashpoints between Iraq's Arab-led government in Baghdad and minority Kurds that US officials fear could lead to renewed conflict in Iraq.
Earlier today, gunmen wearing military uniforms shot dead 12 men in a pre-dawn attack at a village near Baghdad today.
The attack took place in the mainly Sunni village of Zauba, west of Baghdad, which at the height of the fighting in Iraq was viewed as a hotbed of support for Sunni Islamist insurgents. One of those killed was affiliated with the main Sunni Arab political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, police said.