Seven bombs kill at least 24 in Iraq's Kirkuk

KIRKUK, Iraq, June 13 (Reuters) Seven apparently coordinated bomb attacks killed at least 24 people in the northern Iraqi oil hub city of Kirkuk today, police and hospital sources said.

The bombings occurred a day after al Qaeda in Iraq named a successor to its leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air strike last week. The group vowed to carry on with a campaign of suicide bombings and beheadings.

A car bomb exploded outside the house of a senior police officer in Kirkuk, seriously wounding him and killing one of his bodyguards, police said.

When police and US forces gathered in the area a roadside bomb exploded, killing 10 civilians and wounding 11.

Another roadside exploded outside a law college, killing one person and wounding two.

A car bomb targeting a police patrol killed 10 civilians and wounded two policemen.

A suicide bomber in a car was shot by guards as he tried to attack the police headquarters in Kirkuk. He blew himself up, killing two policemen and wounding 10 civilians.

Another suicide bomber in a car blew himself up at one of the local offices of a Kurdish party headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, wounding two people, police said.

Shortly afterwards, a suicide bomber in a car was shot by guards as tried to attack the building.

Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, is a divided city of several ethnic groups and its fate is a highly explosive, unresolved issue.

REUTERS KD BST1208