A truck bomb exploded during rush hour Sunday on a busy commercial street in northern Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and wounding about two dozen, Iraqi police and health officials said. The explosives-packed small truck blew up some 200 yards (meters) away from a passport office in a Sunni Arab district, a police officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. At least two women were among the dead, the officer said. The wounded included four women and three policemen, he added. Health authorities confirmed the casualties. It was the first major bombing in Baghdad since last Monday, when three suicide bombers killed more than 30 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 US goal aimed at reconciling Iraq's rival ethnic and religious communities.
