A bomb killed two children and badly wounded two more as they played in an empty lot in the troubled northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday, police there said. "The two children killed were seven and six years old, while two others were seriously injured, one who lost a leg," Captain Salam Zangan told AFP.
He said he did not know if the bomb had been placed recently or was old, but Kirkuk, 255 kilometres (158 miles) north of Baghdad, has been beset by recent insurgent-linked violence.
In a separate incident just north of the Iraqi capital in Mansuriyah, gunmen broke into the home of a woman, killing her and two of her daughters and wounding three other daughters, local security sources said. A local hospital confirmed the incident and police said they were unsure of the reason for the attack.