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At least nine killed in suicide attacks on Iraqi Kurds

KIRKUK, Iraq, Aug 27, 2006 (AFP) - Two near simultaneous suicide car bomb attacks on Kurdish targets killed nine and wounded 50 more in the ethnically mixed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday, a senior police officer said.

One attack hit a religious shrine owned by the family of Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, the other the home of a Kurdish police chief, police Brigadier General Burhan Tayib told AFP in the city.

A total of nine people were killed, including police Colonel Ahmed Abdallah's son, Tayib said.

Both attacks took place in the Iskan district, a stronghold of Talabani's tribe and of his party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in Kirkuk, an oil-rich city which is claimed by both Arabs and Iraq's Kurdish minority.

Earlier, a third suicide car bomber had blown himself up near the PUK office in Kirkuk, killing one guard and wounding 16 party members, police said.