BAGHDAD - A truck bomb exploded during rush hour Sunday in northern Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 14 others, Iraqi police and health officials said.
The explosive-laden small truck was parked some 200 yards (meters) away from a passport office when the bomb went off, a police officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Three policemen were among the wounded, he said. Health authorities confirmed the casualties.
It was the first major bombing in Baghdad since last Monday, when three suicide bombers killed 32 people and wounded hundreds during a Shiite religious procession.
Sunday's attack came just hours before Iraq's parliament is scheduled to convene a special session aimed at defusing tension over Kurdish demands to incorporate the oil-rich Kirkuk area into their autonomous region in Iraq's north.
The dispute over Kirkuk and its vast oil wealth has blocked passage of legislation providing for provincial elections this year, a major U.S. goal aimed at reconciling Iraq's rival ethnic and religious communities.
More than 1,000 Sunni Arabs and Turkomen rallied Saturday against Kurdish demands in the town of Hawija, near Kirkuk - where tension runs high since a suicide bomb attack killed 25 people on Monday during a Kurdish protest there.....
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