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26 killed, 130 wounded in series of bombings in Iraq

Arab World Materials 16 January 2013 17:26 (UTC +04:00)
At least 26 people were killed and 130 wounded in a series of bombings Wednesday in Iraq, apparently targeting Kurds, security officials said, dpa reported.
26 killed, 130 wounded in series of bombings in Iraq

At least 26 people were killed and 130 wounded in a series of bombings Wednesday in Iraq, apparently targeting Kurds, security officials said, dpa reported.

Fifteen people, including eight Kurdish security personnel, were killed and 100 wounded in a car bombing at a complex housing the Kurdistan Democratic Party and non-governmental organizations in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Three civilians died in a second car bombing targeting a nearby Kurdish security building.

Kirkuk is at the centre of a dispute between the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq and the Baghdad government.

A third bombing took place outside the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party and a Kurdish security unit in the city of Salah Eddin, 170 kilometres north of Baghdad, officials said.

That blast killed six people and injured 30, the Alsumaria News website reported, adding that another car bomb was defused outside a court in Salah Eddin.

In Baghdad, two police officers were killed when a bomb hit their patrol vehicle, local media reported quoting security officials.

The attacks come amid a widening crisis between Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the country's formerly dominant Sunni minority.

Iraq's Sunnis have in recent weeks held massive demonstrations against al-Maliki, accusing him of marginalizing their politicians.

On Tuesday, a Sunni lawmaker was killed in a suicide bombing in the western city of Falluja.

Iraq has witnessed near-daily attacks since US troops withdrew in December 2011, raising fears of a return to the sectarian tensions that drove the country close to civil war in 2006 and 2007.

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