A spate of bomb attacks against police in the disputed northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Thursday killed at least 27 people, the worst violence to hit Iraq in nearly two months. A further 89 people were wounded in the three attacks, with just months to go before US forces must withdraw from the country.
And in separate bombings in Baghdad and the central city of Baquba, a woman and an imam were killed and 10 others wounded, security officials said. Two car bombs and a magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to a car exploded in ethnically mixed Kirkuk, security officials said.
The first blast took place at 9:20 am (0620 GMT) when the sticky bomb exploded in the parking lot of the city's police headquarters, Major Salam Zangan said. When police and emergency responders arrived at the scene shortly afterwards, a car bomb detonated. "I ran out from the headquarters after I heard the first bomb; I went with my colleague to check the parking lot but as we arrived, a huge bomb went off," said Sherzad Kamil, a policeman who was wounded in the abdomen and face.
Kirkuk provincial health director Sadiq Omar Rasul said 27 people were killed and 89 others wounded in the three explosions, with the majority of the casualties being policemen. A senior security official confirmed the toll, while an interior ministry official in Baghdad said 29 people had died and 80 were wounded.
The first two explosions caused massive damage to nearby police and civilian vehicles. Afterwards, several police cars with loudspeakers affixed to them could be heard appealing to people to make their way to the city's hospital to donate much-needed blood for victims, an AFP journalist said. At around 10:30 am, another car bomb detonated near the convoy of a senior police official in Kirkuk, Colonel Aras Mohammed.