KIRKUK, Iraq, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three policemen were killed and five others injured in two bomb explosions which targeted the Iraqi police in the city of Kirkuk on Monday, a local police source said.

An off-duty policeman cleans the wounds of his colleague who was wounded in a bomb attack, in a hospital in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, January 4, 2010. Three policemen were killed and five others injured in two bomb explosions which targeted the Iraqi police in the city of Kirkuk on Monday, a local police source said.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    A policeman was killed and two others injured when an explosive charge hit the convoy of Brigadier Burhan Tayyib, police chief of Kirkuk City, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Tayyib was not travelling in the convoy when the bombing took place on Monday morning in southern Kirkuk, located some 250 km north of Baghdad, the source said.

    In a separate incident, a roadside bomb went off near a police patrol in southern Kirkuk, killing two policemen and wounding three others, the source added.

    Two police vehicles were also damaged by the blast, he said.

    Kirkuk, which is one of the disputed areas among Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish communities, has long been the hot bed of insurgency since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.   

Two Iraqi policemen inspect a police vehicle damaged in a roadside bomb attack in Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 4, 2010.(Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

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