Emad Matti / AP

Residents survey damaged houses following an overnight car bomb attack in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 17, 2012. On Sunday a series of blasts struck Shiite Muslim targets in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, home to a mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen, Each ethnic group has competing claims to the oil-rich area, the Kurds want to incorporate the area into their self-ruled region in Iraq's north, but Arabs and Turkomen are opposed, police said.

Reuters reports — Bombs and mortar blasts struck two cities in Iraq's disputed territories on Sunday, killing at least nine people at a time of escalating tension between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan region in the north.

A string of bombings hit Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city at the heart of a dispute between the Arab-led central government in Baghdad and ethnic Kurds who run their own regional authority to the north of the country. Full story…

AP

People inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in al-Mouafaqiyah, a village inhabited by families from the Shabak ethnic group, near the city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 17.

Marwan Ibrahim / AFP - Getty Images

A youth inspects destruction following two bomb blasts near a Shiite place of worship in the flashpoint town of Tuz Khurmatu in the Kirkuk province of Iraq, Dec. 17.

Related content:

• Video: Car bombing in Baghdad kills 11
• Car bombs kill 23 Shiite Muslims in Iraqi capital
• Bombs target Kurds in Iraq's disputed north
• Migration in the Americas: Iraqis in US, safer but struggling

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Emad Matti / AP

People react at the scene of a bomb attack in Kirkuk, Iraq on Nov. 27, 2012. Three parked car bombs exploded Tuesday morning simultaneously in the city of Kirkuk, home to a combustible mix of Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkomen who all claim rights to the city, police said.

Ako Rasheed / Reuters

A Kurdish security officer stands guard next to the destroyed headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK) after a bomb attack in Kirkuk on Nov. 27, 2012.

Reuters reports — Bombs targeting ethnic Kurds killed four people on Tuesday in the city of Kirkuk in Iraq's disputed northern territories, where the Iraqi army and troops from the autonomous Kurdistan region have been in stand-off for more than a week.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks although Sunni Islamist insurgents including a local affiliate of al Qaeda continue to strike regularly, killing 144 people across Iraq in October alone.

After decades of oppression, Kurds in Syria get taste of freedom

The latest bomb attacks come after troops from Baghdad and the Kurdistan region moved in last week on the territories over which both the central government and the Kurds claim jurisdiction. Read the full story.

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Marwan Ibrahim / AFP - Getty Images

An injured Iraqi bank employee leaves the site of a blast outside her workplace where police officers were collecting their salaries in the ethnically-mixed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, northern Iraq, on September 29.

Marwan Ibrahim / AFP - Getty Images

Iraqi security forces inspect the site of a blast in Kirkuk on September 29.

Marwan Ibrahim / AFP - Getty Images

A member of the Iraqi civil defence corps carries a wounded boy rescued from the site of a blast in Kirkuk on September 29.

The AP reports from SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq:

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car Thursday near a bank where policemen were picking up their paychecks in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing two people and wounding as many as 60, officials said.

Kirkuk police spokesman Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said a policeman and a civilian died in the blast, and that most of the wounded were policemen.

Col. Salam Zangna, a security official in Kirkuk Hospital, confirmed the deaths and said about 60 others had been injured.

"My children are waiting for me to come with the salary today in order to buy school bags and stationary," policeman Mirwan Sadiq said. "Instead the family will receive sad news about me."

He had been standing in line near the bank's front door when the blast knocked him down and into a wall. He was among those wounded in the attack.

"These merciless terrorists do not differentiate between military and civilians," Sadiq added.

The AP reports from SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq:

A car bomb outside a Christian church wounded 23 people Tuesday as security forces found and disabled vehicles packed with explosives outside two other churches in northern Iraq.

The bombing and the two averted attacks in the northern city of Kirkuk signal continued violence against Iraqi Christians, nearly 1 million of whom have fled since the war began in 2003. Continue reading.

Emad Matti / AP

Iraqis inspect the site of an early morning car bomb attack in front of a church in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, on Aug. 2. Scores of people were injured in the attack, police said.

Emad Matti / AP

The damaged interior of the holy family Syrian Catholic Church after an early morning car bomb attack in Kirkuk on Aug. 2.

Marwan Ibrahim / AFP - Getty Images

Medics stitch the forehead of a young girl who was wounded when a car bomb exploded outside a church in Kirkuk on Aug. 2.

KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — Twin bombs that appeared timed to lure policemen out of their fortified headquarters in a northern Iraqi city killed 27 people on Thursday, most of them police officers.

Scores were wounded in the double blasts in Kirkuk, and a third explosion 45 minutes later on a road to a city hospital brought the number of injured to at least 70, said provincial health director Siddiq Omar. Continue reading.

Ako Rasheed / Reuters

Firefighters grieve over their colleagues who were killed after a bomb attack in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, on May 19. Two bombs exploded near a bus station in the city on Thursday.

Emad Matti / AP

Iraqi security forces inspect the scene of a bombing in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 19.

Reuters

Smoke rises as firefighters hose a building down after a bomb attack in Kirkuk, northern Iraq on Feb. 9. Three car bombs killed four people and wounded 20 others, police and hospital sources said.

Ako Rasheed / Reuters

An Iraqi soldier patrols the site of a bomb attack in Kirkuk, northern Iraq on Feb. 9. Three car bombs killed four people and wounded 20 others, police and hospital sources said.

Car bombs ripped through the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk today, killing seven and wounding up to 80 people in the heart of a region of long-simmering ethnic tensions.

Three blasts struck outside the headquarters of the Kurdish intelligence forces known as the Asayish, on a highway and near a gas station in southern Kirkuk. Full story.