At least 25 people were killed and more than 100 others were wounded Friday when a car bomb explosion followed by an explosive belt blast hit a popular football match in Iraq's northern city of Telaffer, 70 km west of Mosul, Nineveh province.

According to the local police source, there was a soccer match between two local team evening in Al Wahda district in Talaffer, a car loaded with explosives exploded. After that, a suicide bomber blew himself up among people who gathered there.

Nineveh province has been a stronghold of insurgent groups and al-Qaida fighters in the war-torn country. The province has been the scene of major security crackdowns by U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces to uproot the insurgency which erupted shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.