SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq— A
suicide bomber posing as a dairy deliveryman struck a Kurdish security
headquarters Wednesday, setting off a series of rapid-fire attacks
against the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk that killed seven and wounded
up to 80 people.
Within minutes, two more bombs exploded nearby,
sending dark plumes of smoke into the clear winter sky and ending a
six-month lull in violence in a city rife with simmering ethnic tensions
located 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
The city is
divided between Kurds, Turkomen and Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and has long
been feared to be a potential new flashpoint in Iraq.