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BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber opened fire on worshippers during Friday prayers at a mosque in northern Iraq and then blew himself up after running out of ammunition, killing 12 people, police and hospital officials said.

The attacker walked into the Sunni mosque in Tal Afar and started firing on worshippers with an AK-47 rifle as the imam was delivering his sermon, a local police official said. Sixty-five people were wounded in the attack. When the shooter ran out of ammunition, he detonated his explosives belt, the official said.

The imam, Abdul-Satar Hassan, a member of Iraq's largest Sunni political party, was also killed in the attack, the official said. It was not immediately clear if the slain imam was the intended victim, although Sunni clerics have increasingly become targets in Iraq's sectarian bloodletting.

Sahir Jalal, 37, who was at the mosque for prayers, said the imam had just begun delivering a sermon when a tall man stood up.

"Then he took out a small rifle from under his jacket and started to shoot," he said.

Seconds later, the man shouted "God is Great" and detonated explosives strapped to his body, Jalal said.

An official with the Tal Afar hospital confirmed the casualty count. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media.

Last week, a Sunni cleric driving home after delivering a sermon in Saqlawiyah, 45 miles (75 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, was killed by a bomb attached to his car. Earlier this week, the cleric who leads the biggest Sunni mosque in Baghdad was wounded in a similar bombing.

A Sunni cleric in Mosul was killed in September, also by a bomb attached to his car.

Tal Afar is about 40 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Mosul. While violence in Iraq has dropped dramatically since the height of the insurgency, the area in and around Mosul is considered one of the last strongholds of the Sunni-backed insurgency and the scene of some horrific bombings recently.

Tal Afar, a mostly Turkoman city, is located along one of the major smuggling routes from Syria to Mosul and has gone through cycles of stability and instability for years. The Sunni majority at one time had an alliance with the Shiite police to battle Sunni insurgents and their allies.

Recent attacks have mainly targeted ethnic minorities, possibly indicating insurgents are seeking out vulnerable, relatively unprotected targets to maximize casualties as the strapped Iraqi army focuses its efforts on more central areas of the country.

On Aug. 7, a suicide truck bomb flattened a mosque in a northern Mosul suburb, killing at least 44 people and wounding more than 200. On July 9, two suicide bombers wearing explosives belts killed at least 38 people and injured 66 near a judge's house in Tal Afar.

The U.S. military has said overall levels of violence remain low compared with past years but have warned insurgents will step up efforts to re-ignite sectarian violence before January's national elections.

It is also a sensitive time for the government because Iraqi forces are assuming control of security from U.S. forces.

President Barack Obama has ordered all combat troops to pull out by Aug. 31, 2010, leaving up to 50,000 in advising roles. Under the security agreement between Iraq and the U.S. all American forces are to leave by the end of 2011.

Also Friday, an aide to Iraq's prime minister said a Sunni lawmaker accused of being an insurgent ringleader has been detained in Malaysia.

Mohammed al-Dayni slipped through Iraqi custody several months ago, but was detained in Kuala Lumpur, Yassin Majeed said.

Earlier this year, al-Dayni was charged with ordering a wave of attacks that included a 2007 suicide blast in the parliament cafeteria and mortar strikes on Baghdad's Green Zone.

An Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said Friday a letter has been sent to the Malaysian government asking for al-Dayni's extradition to Iraq.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

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Associated Press Writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.