Kirkuk’s car bomb casualties rise to 26

KIRKUK, Sept. 21 (Iraqi News) – Casualties from the car bomb explosion that ripped through southwestern Kirkuk city earlier today have reached two dead and 24 wounded, a local police chief said. “The toll from the car bomb blast that targeted a checkpoint near Kirkuk Police Academy in the southwest of the city is up to 24 wounded persons, including 23 policemen and one civilian,” Brig. Sarhad Qadir told IraqiNews.com- Voices of Iraq- (Iraqi News). The number of dead remains unchanged, Brig. Qadir noted. “The explosion caused damage to four civilian vehicles and a police vehicle,” he added. Earlier today, the brigadier told VOI that a car rigged with explosives detonated near Kirkuk Police Academy in the southwest of the city, killing two civilians and wounding 23 others. Kirkuk, 250 km (156 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, sits on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires, Assyria, Babylonia and Media which controlled the city at various times. Kirkuk is the centre of the northern Iraqi petroleum industry. It is a historically and ethnically mixed city populated by Assyrians, Kurds, Arabs and Iraqi Turkmen. The population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2008.   SS (S) 1