A suicide bomber blew himself up near the house of a senior Iraqi policeman in the northern city of Samarra, killing at least six of the officer's relatives.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported, but Sunni Muslim insurgents -- including those affiliated with Al Qaeda -- regularly target security personnel and other high ranking Shiite government figures.
According to police sources who spoke to Reuters, the bomber drove up to a group of people who were gathered at the sight of an earlier, smaller explosion close to the house of senior officer Nasser Dawood.
Dawood was not in the vicinity when the suicide bomber detonated his explosives, but most of those killed and wounded in the blast were his relatives, Reuters said.
Al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate -- Al Qaeda in Iraq -- was forced underground in 2007 but has since regrouped, invigorated by the war in Syria and growing resentment of the government that came to power after the US-led invasion in 2003, Reuters reported.
Sunni militants have accused the Iraqi government of marginalising their sect since the ouster of Sadam Hussein.
