BAGHDAD, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed and nine others wounded on Saturday in a suicide car bombing in the city of Kirkuk, a local police source told Xinhua.
"The latest reports said that three people were killed and nine others wounded in the suicide car bomb attack in Kirkuk," the source said on condition of anonymity.
The attack took place in the evening when a suicide bomber detonated his car, loaded with explosives, after hitting a nearby vehicle in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said.
Ambulances, police and civilian vehicles evacuated the victims to the city's main hospital and medical centers, while security forces sealed off the scene to secure the area, the source added.
Tensions run high in the past few weeks as the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk was expected to witness a controversial referendum, as the city is part of the disputed areas that the Kurds want to incorporate into their semi-autonomous region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkomans and by Baghdad government.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most previous cases, has carried out such suicide attacks targeting security forces and crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.
