A pair of car bombs in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk have killed 3 and seriously injured at least 20 others. The Chinese news agency, Xinhua, quotes Iraqi local police sources which state that the first blast was in the vicinity of the Kurdish political party in Alshtral and the second exploded 250 kilometers north of Baghdad.
Kirkuk Province is occupied by Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen. Historically, it is a Kurdish area, but was forcibly settled by Arabs during the Saddam regime.