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Iraqi Kurdish city of Kirkuk targeted in
Attacks, 18 Killed
19.3.2007 |
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March 19, 2007
Kirkuk, Iraq-Kurdistan region border, -- Three
car bombs and two roadside devices killed 18 people
and wounded 37 in the northern Iraqi city of
Kirkuk on Monday, police said.
The blasts happened in different parts of the city
but exploded within a few minutes.
One car bomb targeted the local offices of the
secular political party of former prime minister
Iyad Allawi, another one targeted a government
building and the third exploded in a commercial
street, Brigadier Sarhat Qader said.
The three roadside bombs targeted Iraqi police and
army patrols, Qader said.
Kirkuk, lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region and 250 km (155 miles) north of
Baghdad, is a city disputed by Arabs, ethnic Kurds
and Turkmen, and violence there is common. Settling
its final status is one of the most sensitive issues
in Iraq
Over the past few months, insurgents have stepped up
attacks in Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city claimed
by both Arabs and Kurds.
Reuters
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The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
about 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and
it is not under the full control of Kurdistan
Regional Government administration, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be
held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be
annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan region
in Iraq's north.
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