KIRKUK / Aswat al-Iraq: A third car bomb went off near an office of the Asayesh forces in northern Kirkuk, with no word on casualties, a security source said.

 

 

Two car bombs went off earlier in Kirkuk that targeted the Kurdistan Democratic Party's office in northern Kirkuk and a Kurdish neighborhood in northern Kirkuk, killing two and injuring four.

 

 

Tensions between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq have been running high after the establishment of a new military command covering disputed territory, and over various other long-running disputes.

 

 

The establishment of the command, based in Kirkuk city and covering all of the province of the same name as well as neighboring Salah al-Din and Diala, has drawn an angry response from Kurdish leaders who want to incorporate much of the area into their autonomous region.

 

 

The dispute over the command strikes at the heart of an unresolved row between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government in Arbil over territory, oil and the interpretation of Iraq's federal constitution.

 

 

SH (TS)/SR