At least four killed, 15 injured in north Iraq bombings (Roundup)

Jan 28, 2010, 15:08 GMT

Baghdad - At least four people were killed and 15 injured on Thursday in bomb attacks across northern Iraq, police told the German Press Agency dpa.

In the northern city of Mosul, four people, including two policemen, were killed and three injured when a bomb detonated near a police patrol in the al-Zohur district of the city, police said.

Mosul, some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, is among the most dangerous areas of Iraq, despite security pushes that police say have netted hundreds of suspected insurgents.

In Kirkuk, two bomb blasts injured at least 12 people. The first targeted retired police officers waiting to receive their monthly pensions and benefits at a facility on the edge of the city, injuring five, four of them seriously, police Lieutenant Colonel Kamel Mohammed told dpa.

The second blast injured seven police officers patrolling the city centre in a convoy, he said, adding that insurgents had fired rockets at US military facility near the city, but that he did not know the extent of the damage, if any.

A US military spokesman said he could not confirm the attack.

Kirkuk has long been the focus of a bitter political dispute between Iraqi Kurds, many of whom hope to make the city the capital of a future independent state, and Iraqi Arab and Turkmen politicians, who view Kirkuk and its nearby oilfields as integral parts of Iraq.