Three car bombs killed six people and wounded 75 others in Iraq's oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk today, police and hospital sources said.
A police source said the first blast targeted an Iraqi police official, while the second explosion was aimed at a police patrol. The third bomb went off outside a building used by Kurdish security forces, the source said.
"Three car bombs exploded in quick succession. We are on high alert now, and fear there may be more car bombs," the police source said.
"We've sealed the areas around where the explosions occurred, we are evacuating the wounded and we have intensified searches at checkpoints in other areas to prevent any other car bombs."
Police and hospital sources said six people including two policemen were killed and 75 others wounded in the three successive blasts in southern Kirkuk, 250km north of Baghdad.
While violence in Iraq has declined sharply from the height of sectarian warfare in 2006-07, bombings and attacks still occur daily.
Nearly 200 people died and hundreds were wounded last month in bomb attacks that bore the hallmarks of Sunni Arab insurgents, showing they remain a potent threat as Washington prepares to remove its final troops this year.
Reuters