(Raises death toll)

BAGHDAD, Aug 3 (Reuters) - A car bomb killed 12 people and wounded 22 others in a Sunni Arab area of Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi police said.

Police said the parked vehicle exploded on a commercial street in the northern Adhamiya district.

Major car bombs are now relatively rare in Baghdad, where a semblance of calm is returning more than five years after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Overall levels of violence in Iraq have fallen to lows not seen since early 2004.

In the last major attack in Baghdad, three female suicide bombers killed 35 people when they blew themselves up during a religious pilgrimage nearly a week ago.

(Reporting by Aseel Kami, Editing by Missy Ryan)

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