BAGHDAD, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber struck a popular market in Iraq's Diyala province on Tuesday, killing six people and wounding 20, police said.

The bomber struck in the town of Jalawla, 110 km (70 miles) north of Baghdad in the Diyala River valley, an ethnically and religiously mixed area that has seen some of the worst fighting between U.S. forces and militants over the past several months.

Violence in Iraq has dropped sharply over the past few months, but has not ceased. According to Iraqi government figures, 538 civilians were killed last month in attacks compared with nearly 2,000 a month at the beginning of the year.

(Writing by Peter Graff, Editing by Dean Yates)

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