TIKRIT, Iraq, July 20 (Xinhuanet) -- A car bomb detonated Wednesday next to a US military patrol in Iraq's northern town of Toz-Khormatu, causing casualties, police said.

    "A booby-trapped vehicle, parked on the side of a road in Toz-Khormatu, blew up early morning as a US military patrol passed by, destroying a US Hamvee killing or wounding all on board," a police source from the US-Iraqi Joint Coordination Center, told Xinhua.

    Two civilians were also wounded in the attack in the town, located some 90 km east of Tikrit, the source said.US troops immediately blocked the roads leading to the scene and cordoned off the area searching houses for suspects, said the police source.

    Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, is part of the so-called the Sunni Triangle in north and west of Baghdad, which has been an area of insurgency against the US troops since the US-led invasion in 2003. Enditem