Kirkuk bombing toll rises to 19

KIRKUK – At least 19 people including women and children were killed in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk when a suicide bomber ambushed police in a busy market area, a hospital doctor said yesterday.

The death toll, which stood at 16, included four policemen. There were 26 wounded in the blast and another three people were reported missing, according to Dr Nihad Omar Walid of Kirkuk General Hospital.Police rushed to the scene after a small explosion was reported in the market area, in the ensuing ambush a policeman was shot and a suicide bomber then ploughed into a patrol car before setting off his explosives.At least 20 shops were damaged, five cars destroyed and a number of the victims were burnt to death, according to police Brigadier General Adel Zein al-Din.Relatives said three people, who were in the busy market street at the time of the blast, were still missing.Police said they found mobile phones belonging to the three.”Today we start searching the houses and the shops around the site, looking for the remains of the three missing people,” said Zein al-Dein.The car bomb went off around 7pm and the street, a major shopping district, was filled with people.”The market is normally very busy at this hour because people do their shopping there before heading home,” said Nassim Khodr, a local shopkeeper.”I just saw flames bursting into the sky and people burning.”US soldiers and police cordoned off the area following the explosion.The neighborhood is mostly inhabited by the Turkoman ethnic minority, part of the city’s volatile mix that includes Sunni Arabs and Kurds.-Nampa-AFPThere were 26 wounded in the blast and another three people were reported missing, according to Dr Nihad Omar Walid of Kirkuk General Hospital.Police rushed to the scene after a small explosion was reported in the market area, in the ensuing ambush a policeman was shot and a suicide bomber then ploughed into a patrol car before setting off his explosives.At least 20 shops were damaged, five cars destroyed and a number of the victims were burnt to death, according to police Brigadier General Adel Zein al-Din.Relatives said three people, who were in the busy market street at the time of the blast, were still missing.Police said they found mobile phones belonging to the three.”Today we start searching the houses and the shops around the site, looking for the remains of the three missing people,” said Zein al-Dein.The car bomb went off around 7pm and the street, a major shopping district, was filled with people.”The market is normally very busy at this hour because people do their shopping there before heading home,” said Nassim Khodr, a local shopkeeper.”I just saw flames bursting into the sky and people burning.”US soldiers and police cordoned off the area following the explosion.The neighborhood is mostly inhabited by the Turkoman ethnic minority, part of the city’s volatile mix that includes Sunni Arabs and Kurds.-Nampa-AFP