Car bomb kills 2, wounds 35 in Iraq's Kirkuk

English.news.cn   2011-03-16 15:51:05

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Vehicles burn as fire fighters douse the flames following a car bomb that ripped through a crowd outside a hospital in Iraq's restive northern city of Kirkuk on March 16, 2011. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

KIRKUK, Iraq, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Up to two people were killed and 35 others wounded on Wednesday when a car bomb explosion struck a convoy of a senior government official in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, a local police source said.

The incident took place in al-Jamhouriyah street in central city when a booby-trapped car detonated near the convoy of Muhammed Qader, the city's director general of water and sewage, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"The latest report said that bodies of a woman and a man have been evacuated to the morgue of the city's main hospital and some 35 people received treatment in the city hospitals by the blast," the source said, citing information collected from the city hospitals.

Earlier, the source put the toll at a woman killed and 17 wounded.

Qader himself escaped the attack unhurt but some of his bodyguards were among the wounded, the source said.

The ethnically mixed province of Kirkuk and its capital Kirkuk City are part of the disputed areas between the Kurds and both Arabs and Turkmans. The area has long been the hotbed of insurgency since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack in Kirkuk, some 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, March 16, 2011. A car bomb killed one woman and wounded 35 people in central Kirkuk, police Major-General Torhan Abdul-Rahman said. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Iraqi firefighters hose down a destroyed vehicle at the site of bomb attack in Kirkuk, some 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, March 16, 2011.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) =====================================================