BAGHDAD: At least 15 people were killed in bomb blasts and a shooting in Iraq yesterday, police and hospital sources said.
Ten people were killed when two car bombs exploded near government buildings in the ethnically mixed, oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Relations among Iraqi communities have come under growing strain since US troops left the country in December 2011.
The conflict in neighboring Syria has also put pressure on Iraq's delicate intercommunal balance.
"There were two bodies on the ground outside the building, people were shouting and mess was everywhere," said Rawaa Rahman, a government employee in Kirkuk who was wounded in the hand.
Although violence is well below the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006-7, insurgents still carry out almost daily attacks to try to undermine the government.
The violence continued elsewhere. A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up near a police patrol in northern Baghdad, killing at least two policemen, police said.
