KurdistanObserver.com

Five of the wounded are in serious condition  

KIRKUK, (Southern Kurdistan)-Mar 29- AFP-  At least one man was killed and 17 others wounded in a massive car bombing on Tuesday targeting a Kurdish official in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said.

The attack occurred at about 9:00 am (0600 GMT) as the convoy of Abdulqader Zanganah, the head of the city's waterworks, approached a roundabout in the northern Kurdish neighbourhood of Rahimawa, police Colonel Adel Zeinalbeddin said.

He said preliminary inquiries suggested that a bomb-rigged vehicle parked on a sidestreet had been detonated by remote control.

Dozens of vehicles were reduced to twisted rubble and several buildings and shops were damaged as crowds gathered at the scene and US troops ringed the area.

One civilian bystander, 28-year-old Mohammed Abdullah, died in hospital, while eight of Zanganah's bodyguards were among the wounded, said Dr. Anwar Abdullah of al-Azadi hospital.

Hospital officials had earlier said that five of the wounded were in serious condition.

There was no immediate word on the condition of Zanganah, who is a member of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Massoud Barzani.

The KDP's Kirkuk chief Najat Hassan Karim escaped an assassination attempt on Saturday as he drove back to the city from a funeral service in Kifri to the southeast.

Barzani has been one of the most vocal champions of incorporating the oil centre of Kirkuk in the Kurdish autonomous region, despite opposition from the Turkmen minority and Arabs settled in the city under Saddam Hussein's regime.