Three blasts struck outside the headquarters of the Kurdish intelligence forces known as the Asayish, on a highway and near a gas station in southern Kirkuk, located 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
AP Television News footage showed police cars with blaring sirens racing to the Asayish headquarters with black and gray plumes of smoke rising from the first two attacks around 10 a.m. Minutes later, the third blast just down the street from the Asayish headquarters exploded near a taxicab and knocked people to the ground. The sounds of gunshots could be heard immediately after the last bombing.
Police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said seven were killed and up to 80 wounded in the explosions. Dr. Khalid Ahmed of Kirkuk emergency hospital confirmed the casualty count.
Qadir said the bomb along the highway targeted a police patrol led by a top commander, Col. Ahmed Shamerani, but he was not hurt in the blast. But two policemen were among the dead, while five police and eight Asayish officials were wounded."
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