A car bomb apparently targeting a local police chief killed five people and wounded 10 in central Iraq on Wednesday morning, police and medical officials said.

"Five people were killed and ten wounded by a car bomb" that exploded near the town of Dhuluiyah, 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of Baghdad, a senior police officer in nearby Samarra said.

The five dead were all civilians, he said.

A medical official in Dhuluiyah hospital confirmed that the facility received five dead people and 10 wounded.

The police officer said that the explosion took place at about 8:30 am (5:30 GMT) when Dhuluiyah police chief Colonel Qandil Khalil's convoy was passing by.

It was the second attack against Khalil's convoy this year, after a previous car bombing in January.

Dhuluiyah is part of Sunni-majority Salaheddin province. It was an Al-Qaeda stronghold after the 2003 US-led invasion before the government took back control with the help of tribal militias.