Car bombs, shootings kill 8 in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) – A string of insurgent attacks including three car bombs in an ethnically divided northern city killed eight people across Iraq on Tuesday, police said.

Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, police commander of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, said back-to-back detonations of a parked car bomb and a roadside bomb in a parking lot near the provincial council building killed one civilian and injured 15.

Another parked car bomb went off in a residential area in the same city and wounded five civilians, he added.

A third car bomb struck a passing police patrol near Kirkuk, killing two policemen and wounding three others, according to Qadir.

Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, is home to a combustible mix of Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkomen who all claim rights to the city.

Earlier, gunmen in a speeding car attacked an Iraqi army check point in the city of Tuz Khormato outside Kirkuk, killing two soldiers and injuring two others, Qadir said. Tuz Khormato is located 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, police said gunmen fatally shot two brothers who are members of the anti-al-Qaida group known as Sahwa, after breaking into their house in Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

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