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.