Series of blasts killed 17 in Iraq

Baghdad: Series of blasts killed at least 17 people and wounded at least 77 in Iraq on Tueday, officials said.
Two car bombs and seven roadside bombs exploded near two Shiite places of worship, known as husseiniyahs, in the northern city of Kirkuk, while a magnetic “sticky bomb” targeted a policeman near the city yesterday, police said.

Sadiq Omar Rasul, the head of the Kirkuk health directorate, put the toll from the various attacks at 13 killed and 57 wounded.

Oil-rich and ethnically mixed Kirkuk is part of a swathe of territory in northern Iraq that the autonomous Kurdistan region wants to incorporate, over the strong objections of Baghdad.
The dispute over territory in northern Iraq is the greatest threat to the country’s long-term stability, diplomats and officials say. Ties between Baghdad and Kurdistan are also marred by disputes over oil and power-sharing.

In Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, gunmen armed with automatic weapons attacked an army checkpoint, killing at least two soldiers and wounding at least three, an interior ministry official and a police officer said.

And a car bomb wounded a policeman and three civilians in Baiji, 200 kilometres north of the capital, security and medical sources said.

While violence has decreased significantly from its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks still occur almost every day in Iraq.