Baghdad: At least 10 people were killed when a car bomb struck a police patrol in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad Sunday, a provincial police source said.

"The latest police reports said that ten people were killed, including a policeman, and 25 others wounded in the attack," the source said.

"A car bomb detonated in the town of Baldruz at about 10:00 a.m. near a police patrol carrying detainees from the town of Mandili to the police station of the town," the source said. The attack took place in front of the police station near a popular vegetable market in central Baldruz, some 45 km east of Diyala's capital Baquba, the source added.

The blast destroyed several nearby shops and buildings, setting several civilian cars on fire, he said. Earlier in the day, an Iraqi army source said that gunmen set up faked checkpoints on a main road in the province and riddled two KIA minibuses with bullets, killing five people and injuring seven.

Diyala province, which stretches from Baghdad to the Iranian border to the east, has long been the hot bed of insurgency and sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.