A suicide car bomb exploded in a residential neighbourhood in northern Iraq on Saturday killing at least eight people and wounding 40.
The blast targeted the home of an anti-terrorism official in a residential area in Baiji, a northern Iraqi town with a large oil refinery.
Iraq has seen a dramatic fall in violence in the past few months after Washington dispatched 30,000 extra troops.
The US says Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants remain a formidable foe, committed to attempting large-scale attacks.
As the Sunni Arab militants have been pushed out of other areas, they have regrouped in the provinces north of Baghdad, which is now the focus of fighting.
Suicide bombers killed at least 26 people in two attacks in the province of Diyala north of Baghdad yesterday.
