Three car bombs and two roadside devices killed 18 people and wounded 37 in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk today, police said.
The blasts happened in different parts of the city but exploded within a few minutes. One car bomb targeted the local offices of the secular political party of former prime minister Iyad Allawi, another one targeted a government building and the third exploded in a commercial street, Brigadier Sarhat Qader said.
The three roadside bombs targeted Iraqi police and army patrols, Brig Qader said. Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, is a city disputed by Arabs, ethnic Kurds and Turkmen, and violence there is common. Settling its final status is one of the most sensitive issues in Iraq.
Earlier, at least six worshippers were killed and 32 wounded when a suicide bomber struck a Shia mosque during prayers in Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
The attacker tried to enter the mosque at about 12.30pm local time, but blew himself up at the entrance after guards tried to search him.
The explosion occurred in the central Shorja market area, where a massive truck bomb killed 137 people last month. Iraqi authorities have imposed strict security in the area to prevent car bombings as part of the Baghdad security crackdown aimed at stopping the sectarian violence that has devastated the capital.
Elsewhere, a police source in Dhuluiya, a town 80 km north of Baghdad in Salahaddin province, said suspected al-Qaeda militants blew up two police stations early today after warning police to leave the town.
Yesterday police found the decapitated and bound bodies of nine policemen in an al-Qaeda stronghold in western Iraq, as US commanders blamed the militant group for chlorine gas bombs that poisoned hundreds in the same province last week.
Agencies