14 killed in car bomb attack in eastern Iraq

Fourteen civilians were killed and 21 others wounded in a car bomb attack in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a local official said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday night when a booby-trapped car detonated outside the house of head of al-Nida Sunni tribe at a village near the town of Mandli, some 150 km east of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Azad al-Mandlawi, the head of Mandli's town hall, told Xinhua by telephone.

The powerful blast targeted the tribal leader's house when several tribal Sunni leaders were having a meeting and discussing the abduction of Shiekh Turky Mutlag al-Nadawi, one of al-Nida tribal leaders, by gunmen earlier in the day, al-Mandlawi said.

Violence and sectarian tensions have been running high between Sunni and Shiite communities in the volatile province of Diyala, as Sunnis and Shiites are carrying out reprisal killings.

Diyala province, which stretches from eastern edges of Baghdad to Iranian border in east of the country, has long been a volatile area since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated military operations against militant groups. Endit