Suicide Bomb Kills 10 in Kirkuk

At least 10 people died and 45 were injured in an apparent suicide bomb attack on an Iraqi police station in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, today.

The blast, in the Kurdish district of the city, is the latest in a string of bombings against coalition and Iraqi security forces that have killed 300 people since January 1 this year. It is the third such attack against Kurds in the north of the country in the last month.

Kirkuk has seen rising ethnic tensions as Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans vie for control of the city, located in one of the world's richest oil-producing regions, 300km north of Baghdad.

About 20 policemen had gathered in front of the Rahimawa police station to get their day's orders when the car exploded at 8.45am local time, said the station's commander, Colonel Adel Ibrahim.

The attack, which heavily damaged nearby buildings and destroyed cars, was a suicide bombing, he said.

As ambulances ferried out casualties and police closed off the area, a US military rapid reaction team arrived at the scene.

Initial reports on the death toll were unclear. Kirkuk hospital sources said at least 10 people were killed, all of them believed to be policemen, and 45 people were wounded. The US military command in Baghdad said at least four civilians were killed.

Lieutenant Abdul Salaam Zangana, a security officer at al-Jumhuriya hospital, said 10 of the wounded were in critical condition. A boy and four girls from a nearby high school were among the injured.

As US officials prepare to hand over power to the Iraqis on June 30, Kurds are pressing to maintain their self-rule region in the north under any future Iraqi government. However, US administrators oppose the maintenance of any local militias.

The 25-member Iraqi governing council, which is drafting an interim constitution, is trying to work out a federal system to decentralise government in the future Iraq, but differences have arisen over how much autonomy to give Kurdish areas.

Kirkuk is at the centre of the controversy. Kurds view the city and surrounding region as the heartland of their Kurdistan, but it also has Arab, Turkoman and other populations vying for control. The tensions have erupted into violence in recent months.

Protected by US air power, Kurds enjoyed near independence in a self-rule region along Iraq's northern border during the last decade of Saddam's rule.

Today's attack came as US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew into Iraq on a surprise visit. Mr Rumsfeld's mission is to review the security situation at first-hand ahead of a planned transfer of power to Iraqis in four months.

Mr Rumsfeld, making his fourth visit to Iraq since last year's US-led invasion, was greeted at Baghdad airport by US administrator Paul Bremer before going into a series of meetings with senior US officers who are leading more than 100,000 troops in the country.