Baghdad - An explosives-laden car parked near an outdoor market exploded on Sunday in a mainly Sunni area in western Iraq, killing at least five people and wounding 34, police said, raising concern that sectarian violence could re-surge now that United States troops have pulled out of major Iraqi urban areas.
The attack came as Shi'a Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was visiting the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq for talks with Kurdish leaders over a range of issues that have long poisoned relations, like control of oil and territory.
Al-Maliki recently said in Washington that differences between the Kurds and the rest of Iraq were among the most dangerous challenges facing his country and that they must be resolved by constitutional means, not by force.
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On Sunday, he met with recently re-elected regional President Massoud Barzani, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and other Kurdish officials.
But Sunday's bombing - coming two days after 29 people were killed in blasts in Baghdad - demonstrated that Iraq continues to be volatile elsewhere as well, and raised concerns about the abilities of Iraqi forces to protect the people as US troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011.
A police officer said the explosives-laden car was parked near sidewalk vendors at an outdoor market in Haditha, a city on the Euphrates 220km north-west of Baghdad. The officer gave the casualty toll on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to release the information.
Haditha is in Anbar province, which was one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq until Sunni tribal leaders joined forces with the US military to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The attack Sunday 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.
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