Series of car bombs hit Kirkuk, killing at least 16 people
A series of car bombs exploded in quick succession in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk today, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 20.
The first explosion was a parked car bomb targeting a police patrol at 7.45am local time in the city centre. Ten people, including two policemen and eight civilians, were killed and nine people, including a police colonel, were wounded in that attack, said Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir.
A suspected suicide car bomber then tried to go through the checkpoint of the Kirkuk police directorate some 30 minutes later, but the guards opened fire, causing the car to explode. Qadir said two policemen and three civilians were killed and six people were wounded, including one policeman.
Another suspected suicide car bomber tried to hit a Kurdish political office at 8.30am, but guards foiled that attack as well, said police Col. Taieb Taha. The guards opened fire on the car, causing it to explode outside the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party. Three civilians were wounded.
A suicide car bomber later targeted a police patrol south of Kirkuk at about 9.45am near an institute for the disabled. The explosion killed the driver of a civilian car nearby and wounded six people – two policemen, two passers-by and two patients at the institute, Qadir said.
Kirkuk is 180 miles north of Baghdad.
