Thursday, May 19, 2011

Blasts in Iraq's Kirkuk kill at least 15 - officials

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - At least two bombs exploded in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, killing at least 15 people, a police official and other security sources said.

image courtesy of martinelzone

An Interior Ministry source put the toll at 15 dead and 40 injured, while a police source said the explosions killed 20 people and injured 15.

Kirkuk is located 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad.

"Two explosions occurred, one of them a car bomb near a bus station in central Kirkuk. There are many casualties but as yet we don't know the exact number," Jamal Tahir, the police chief of Kirkuk province, told Reuters.

A smaller explosion was followed by a car bomb blast when police and rescue workers responded at the scene near Kirkuk's police headquarters, a police source said.

(Reporting by Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk and Muhanad Mohammed in Baghdad; Writing by Jim Loney; editing by Andrew Dobbie)-Reuters

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