IRAQ: At least four people are killed and 14 wounded after two car bombs hit the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk

Record ID: 858287

  • Title: IRAQ: At least four people are killed and 14 wounded after two car bombs hit the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk
  • Date: 6th March 2013
  • Summary: KIRKUK, IRAQ (MARCH 6, 2013) (REUTERS) DEBRIS SCATTERED ALL OVER SCENE MORE OF SCATTERED PIECES OF CAR BOMB ON GROUND FLESH AND BLOOD ON GROUND / PAN TO ONLOOKERS AT NEARBY SCHOOL ONLOOKERS STUDENTS WALKING PAST SCATTERED WRECKAGE OF CAR BOMB DAMAGED SHOPS WITH WRECKAGE PILED IN FRONT OF IT KIRKUK, IRAQ (MARCH 5, 2013) (REUTERS) POLICE VEHICLE TOWING BURNT VEHICLE OF EMERGENCY FORCE HIT BY BLAST BUILDING HIT BY BLAST CLOSE OF BUILDING RAVAGED BY BLAST/ TILT DOWN TO WRECKAGE SCATTERED ON GROUND PEOPLE AND SECURITY FORCES AT SCENE/ CAR WRECKAGE IN MIDDLE OF ROAD PEOPLE OVERTURNING CAPSIZED CAR CLOSE OF DAMAGED CAR SECURITY FORCES EXAMINING WRECKAGE OF CAR BOMB/ MASKED SECURITY MEMBER TALKING ON RADIO SAYING "A SUICIDE CAR BOMB REMOTELY DETONATED BY MOBILE PHONE" PEOPLE NEAR DAMAGED CIVILIAN CAR (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNIDENTIFIED RESIDENT SAYING: "It is a tragic situation. Until when we will continue to live in this way? Until when we will continue to experience to live such tragedies experienced by Iraqi people? Until when we will continue to live in this way?" REMAINS OF CAR BOMB IN MIDDLE OF ROAD
  • Embargoed: 21st March 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • City:
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACHXNAKSTOBKWJXKVALT42IAQ1
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Two car bombs hit Iraq's Kirkuk on Tuesday (March 5), killing at least four people and wounding 14 more in neighbourhoods across the ethnically mixed city, security and hospital sources said.
    Kirkuk, which sits atop some of the world's largest oil reserves, is at the heart of a dispute between the Arab-led central government in Baghdad and ethnic Kurds who run their own autonomous region to the north of the country.
    They said that a car bomb targeting a passing patrol of police exploded south of the city 170 km (105 miles), while a suicide car bomber drove his car onto a vehicle of an emergency police force in the central part of the city.
    "It is a tragic situation. Until when we will continue to live in this way? Until when we will continue to experience to live such tragedies experienced by Iraqi people? Until when we will continue to live in this way?" said one unidentified resident.
    Kirkuk, a mix of Arabs, Kurds and ethnic Turkmen who all claim rights to the city, has been seen as a flashpoint for potential conflict between Iraqi Arabs and ethnic Kurds since the last American troops left Iraq a year ago.
    A referendum to determine if Kurds are the dominant ethnicity, which would enhance their claim to Kirkuk and its oil riches, has been repeatedly shelved after Arabs and Turkmen accused Kurds of flooding the city with their kin.
    Kurds say Iraq's former Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein "Arabised" Kirkuk by encouraging Arabs to move there in the 1980s and 1990s.
    Kurdistan has run its own government and armed forces since 1991 and is generally more secure and stable than other parts of Iraq. But the Kurdish region has increasingly clashed with Baghdad by signing oil agreements with companies like Exxon Mobil, deals the central government dismisses as illegal.
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