BAGHDAD, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi parliament speaker condemned a deadly car bomb attack near the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday.
"The repeated terrorist attacks in the liberated areas require a quick response to enhance intelligence efforts, and renew the security plans to ensure the protection of people and strengthen stability in these areas," Mohammed al-Halbousi said in a statement released by his office.
Halbousi also called for strengthening local police force and other security services, and urged the residents to support security forces.
Earlier in the day, an army source said a booby-trapped car went off at a popular market in the town of Qayyara, some 50 km south of Mosul, leaving seven killed and some 40 others wounded.
The huge explosion also destroyed several nearby shops, civilian cars and many outdoor stalls, the Iraqi Army Colonel Rayadh al-Juboury told Xinhua.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, launched such attacks in crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.
The outgoing Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared liberation of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, from the IS in July 2017 after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.
Large parts of Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, including the capital Mosul, fell under IS control in June 2014, when government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
