UNHCR renovates blast-hit market in Kirkuk

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has financed a project to renovate Kirkuk’s Shourja market four months after it was hit by a bombing that left dozens of people killed or wounded. This morning, Kirkuk’s Deputy Governor Rakan Saeed inaugurated the market, where a car bomb killed 33 persons, injured 39 others and caused significant damage to most of its stores on June 30, 2009. The project, which cost $60,000 U.S. dollars, was carried out by the Society for Rehabilitation, Education and Community Health (REACH) and financed by the UNHCR, Saeed told Iraqi News. Kirkuk, an oil-rich and mixed city of Kurds, Turkmen, Christians and Arabs, lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. SS (P)/SR 1