11 killed, 104 injured in Iraq car bombings
By DPA, IANSWednesday, February 9, 2011
KIRKUK - At least 11 people were killed and 104 injured Wednesday in three car bombings in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, security and medical sources said.
One bomb went off near the headquarters of Kurdish security, affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Sixty seconds later, another car exploded a few metres away, targeting a police patrol.
The third car exploded 500 metres away, also targeting a police patrol, sources said.
Some 250 km north of Baghdad, the city of Kirkuk is one of the most ethnically diverse in the country. It is an oil-rich region that has long experienced tensions between its Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen communities.
Violence in Iraq has declined sharply from the height of the sectarian conflict several years ago, but militants still carry out bombings and shootings almost daily.
At least 259 people were killed in Iraq in January, the highest monthly death toll in four months, according to official statistics.
The rising violence follows the end of a nine-month political impasse in December, when Iraq formed a new government.
