Car bomb in Iraq’s Saladin leaves 6 dead, 42 injured

Six people were killed -- and 42 more injured -- when a car bomb went off in Iraq’s Saladin province north of Baghdad on Wednesday, according to a local police source.

The bomb went off outside a restaurant on the road linking Saladin’s city of Baiji to provincial capital Tikrit, Police First Lieutenant Numan al-Jabouri told Anadolu Agency.

The police officer went on to suggest that remnants of the Daesh terrorist group -- which overran much of Iraq in 2014 before being crushed by the army last year -- could be behind Wednesday’s deadly attack.

Recent months have seen frequent attacks on security personnel deployed in northern and eastern Iraq, especially in the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk and Saladin.

Last year, Iraqi officials declared that Daesh's military presence in the country had been all but destroyed following a three-year conflict with the army.

Nevertheless, Iraqi security forces continue to carry out sporadic operations aimed at eliminating the group’s lingering presence in certain parts of the country.