Bombs kill 24, injure 84 in northern Iraq oil city

KIRKUK, Iraq – Six bombs killed 24 people and wounded 84 Sunday in Kirkuk, a northern oil city the Kurds want added to their self-ruled region. The violence came as politicians argued over federation legislation that a Sunni Arab party warned could tear Iraq apart.

The tortured bodies of 15 people were found elsewhere, probable victims of worsening sectarian reprisals, and the U.S. military announced that a sailor assigned to the Marines died Saturday from wounds suffered during combat in Iraq’s restive Anbar province.

A joint U.S.-Iraqi operation in Diwaniyah rounded up 32 people suspected of terrorism. The city, 80 miles south of Baghdad, was the site of a recent clash between the mostly Shiite Iraqi army and a Shiite militia. That fighting killed 23 soldiers and 50 others.

There was no indication who was behind the bombings in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad. The area is the subject of rival claims by the region’s Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen.

The worst assault involved a suicide truck bomb that exploded in the city center, killing 18 and wounding 55. A few hours later, a suicide car bomb rammed a joint U.S.-Iraqi army patrol, killing at least three bystanders and wounding eight people.