Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq     

    BAGHDAD, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- A car bomb went off in Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding 10 others on Wednesday, a local police source said.

    "A car bomb parked near the Samir Restaurant on a main road in Kirkuk detonated near a passing Kurdish soldiers' convoy," Brigadier Burhan Wasif, the city police chief told Xinhua.

    The blast apparently targeted Kurdish Peshmerga forces, guarding a police chief, but missed its target, killing at least two people and wounding ten others, Wasif said.

    The blast damaged several nearby buildings and civilian cars, he added.

    Earlier, another car bomb went off in the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding seven others, the police said.

    Brigadier Muhammad al-Waggaa, deputy police chief of Nineveh province, where Mosul located, told Xinhua that the attack targeted a passing police patrol, but also missed its target, causing civilian casualties instead.