Car bomb in Iraq marketplace kills 6

BAGHDAD -- A car bomb exploded near shops and cafes in the northwestern city of Tal Afar late Saturday morning, killing at least six people and wounding at least 50 others, at least 19 of them critically.

Witnesses said the bomb exploded in a marketplace in the Wihda district as people ran to the scene of a car accident in the middle of the street.

"One of the two cars' owners was my cousin," said Sadiq Hidayet, 38, who was wounded in the bombing and taken to a hospital. "I went to him, and then a white car came, and the blast happened." His cousin was killed in the bombing, he said.

In a statement, U.S. military officials said five were killed and 53 were wounded.

Tal Afar, the capital of Nineveh province, is split among Turkmens, Sunni and Shiites, and was once a place of almost relentless violence. U.S. military officials in Tal Afar say, however, that bombings and other mayhem have markedly declined in recent months, though the level of violence has picked up slightly since the start of Ramadan this month. In July, a car bombing in a street market in Tal Afar killed at least 20, including nine children.

Khisro Goran, Nineveh's deputy governor, blamed the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq for the attack. "Their only aim is to kill as much as they can of Shiites to inflame a new circle of sectarian violence," Goran said, adding that all the victims of the bombing were Shiite.

Also Saturday, Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special representative to Iraq, traveled to the holy city of Najaf to meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite religious leader.

De Mistura said later that in the meeting the two men discussed the problems that have blocked passage of a provincial election law by Iraq's parliament.

"I stress the fact that the danger of having further delays on the electoral law for whatever reason could derail the democratic process and could be interpreted as taking away the opportunity from the Iraqi people to express their own political will," he said.

The parliament recessed last month without passing an election law, after failing to resolve a bitter dispute over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, where Kurds, Shiite Arabs, Sunni Arabs, Turkmens, Yazidis and other groups are pressing claims.

De Mistura said last month that the United Nations would present a series of proposals by October for settling the conflict.

De Mistura said the Ayatollah looked in "very good shape."

It is rare for the religious leader to meet personally with Westerners.

In Baghdad on Saturday, Iraqi government health officials said they have received reports of seven cases of cholera, including one death.

Cholera is also suspected in the deaths of three Iraqis in a hospital near Hilla in central Iraq. Dr. Ihsan Jaffar, the general director of public health for the Health Ministry, said the cases are under investigation and his ministry was receiving advice and technical support from the World Health Organization and other global health groups.

Cholera is a serious and sometimes fatal disease that is usually contracted by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the bacteria that causes the illness. Its symptoms include severe diarrhea and vomiting.