BAGHDAD: A car bomb exploded in a street market in the Iraqi town of Khalis on Thursday, killing 10 people and wounding 25, police and hospital officials said.

Authorities immediately imposed a curfew in Khalis, about 80 kilometres north of Baghdad.

“According to the witnesses, there was a parked civilian car bomb in the street market and it blew up and led to the deaths of 10 people,” said Major Ali al-Temimi of the Khalis police.

The blast underscored Iraq's fragile security as the remaining 13,000 US troops pull out in the next few weeks, nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

US Vice President Joe Biden is on a visit to Iraq designed to herald a new era in US-Iraqi relations.