Sixteen people have been killed and up to 94 injured in a car bomb attack on Wednesday at a market in northern Iraq.

Najem Abdulla, mayor of the Tal Afer city, some 80 km west of Mosul, previously put the casualties at 13 dead and more than 30 wounded.

About 30 of the injured were in serious condition, he said.

The attack, which struck the market at about 7:00 p.m.(1600 GMT), resulted in the largest casualties over the past three months.

A car bomb explosion killed 40 and wounded more than 70 on April in the Diyala province.

As violence incidents have dropped to a four-year low in Iraq, some areas like Mosul and the Diyala province remain volatile.

Hours before the explosion, another car bombing killed two and left eight wounded in Mosul.

Mosul is known as the last stronghold of the al-Qaida terrorist group in Iraq, who is generally blamed for such attacks.

The U.S. military and Iraqi security forces have staged rounds of crackdowns in a bid to stamp out violence in the city.

Iraqi forces are also poised to launch a fresh offensive in the Diyala province against extremists. (Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2008)