Iraq: 16 killed, 20 wounded in car bombings

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A series of car bombs exploded in quick succession in the northern city of Kirkuk (180 miles north of Baghdad) on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and wounding nearly 20, police said. The first explosion was a parked car bomb targeting a police patrol at 7:45 a.m. in the city center. Ten people, including two policemen and eight civilians, were killed and nine people, including a police colonel and eight civilians, were wounded in that attack, Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said. A suspected suicide car bomber then tried to go through the checkpoint of the Kirkuk police directorate some 30 minutes later, but the guards opened fire, causing the car to explode. Another suspected suicide car bomber tried to hit a Kurdish political office at 8:30 a.m., but guards foiled that attack as well, police Col. Taieb Taha said.