At least ten people have been killed and 30 others injured after a car bomb exploded in the central Iraqi city of Ramadi, police and hospital sources have said.

The blast in Ramadi, 100km west of Baghdad and capital of the predominantly Sunni province of Anbar, killed mainly women in a residential area, the sources said on Friday.

It's believed the attacker targeted a wedding party.

"We heard a big explosion and when we arrived at the scene we found a parked car on fire," a police officer said.

"Bodies were scattered everywhere and some houses were destroyed," he said, declining to be named. He also said police had begun evacuating the wounded and had cordoned off the area in case of further explosions.

Five of the wounded were in a critical condition, a hospital source said.

The attack came four days after a truck blast in a crowded market in the city of Diwaniya killed at least 25 people.

Although violence in Iraq has eased since its peak in 2006-2007, last month at least 237 people were killed and 603
wounded in attacks, making it one of the bloodiest months since US troops withdrew at the end of last year.