Blast target Iraq’s more stable Kurdish capital

A bomb exploded in Arbil on Saturday, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, a relatively stable region after bombings targeted Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk in the same day, Reuters reported a local television network Rudaw as saying.

TV footage from the scene showed firefighters dousing the charred remains of a car, which blew up outside a technical college on the road from Arbil to Kirkuk. Several people were wounded but none killed in the blast, Rudaw said.

Kurdish security forces have been on high alert since Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants overran large swathes of Iraq, opening a more than 1,000 km-long (600-mile) front with the semi-autonomous region.

The last major attack in Arbil was in September, when militants launched a coordinated suicide and car bomb attack on the headquarters of the security services.

Kurdistan’s relative security has attracted some of the world’ largest oil companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron Corp to the region, but many of them have put their operations on hold or withdrawn staff since ISIS sweep earlier this month.

Baghdad, Kirkuk bombings kill 31

After a suicide bomber targeted an intelligence headquarters in Baghdad on Saturday, later in the day two bombs exploded near under-construction buildings used as observation positions by security forces in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Please click here: Bombings hit Iraqi military in Baghdad, Kirkuk

The attacks came a day after Shiite militiamen machine gunned 68 Sunni worshipers at a village mosque in Diyala Province, raising the prospect of revenge attacks as politicians try to form a government capable of countering ISIS militants.

Bombings, kidnappings and execution-style shootings occur almost daily, echoing the dark days of 2006-2007, the peak of a sectarian civil war.

(With Reuters and AFP)