Five killed in blast north of Baghdad - police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An explosion in a crowded market north of Baghdad on Sunday killed five people and wounded at least seven, including the town's mayor, police said.

The bomb, planted on a motorcycle, targeted Uday al-Khadran, mayor of the town of Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. He was severely wounded in the attack.

Violence has dropped sharply in Iraq over the last year, and attacks against U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians in October hit their lowest levels since the beginning of the war in 2003.

Yet car bombs, roadside explosions and other violence still rock Iraq on a daily basis.

Also on Sunday, a female suicide bomber killed three people and wounded seven when she detonated an explosive device inside a hospital south of Falluja, west of Baghdad.