Car bombs explode in northern Iraqi city, 7 killed

KIRKUK, Iraq, Oct 15 (Reuters) Four car bombs today exploded in apparently coordinated attacks in the restive northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing at least seven people, police said.

They said three of the four blasts were suicide attacks. All took place within an hour and came just a week after a major security crackdown in the city that netted scores of suspects and hundreds of weapons.

One of the bombs exploded near a girls' school, wounding some students, but police said the target was the nearby headquarters of an Iraqi force responsible for guarding government installations, mostly oil infrastructure.

Police said four policemen and civilians were killed in the attack and 16 wounded, including several students.

Car bombs also exploded outside a teachers' institute and a sweet shop in central Kirkuk, wounding dozens, police said. There were no immediate reports of deaths.

At about the same time, a suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle near an Iraqi police patrol in the southern Kirkuk district of Doumiz, killing three people.

Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, is an ethnically mixed city claimed by Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen which has seen an upsurge of violence. A spate of near simultaneous car bombs in the city killed more than 20 people on September 17.

REUTERS SY BS1657