At least five bombing attacks in Iraq's northern oil-rich Kirkuk city on Tuesday killed at least 16 people, including two attackers, and wounded 35 others, local police chief told Xinhua.

A series of bombs, including two suicide car bombings, went off in Kirkuk around 7:30 a.m. (0330 GMT), killing 16 people and wounding 35 others, said Col. Burhan Saiyd Taha.

Some 11 civilians, three policemen and two suicide bombers were among the killed, he said, adding the police also defused a sixth explosive-packed vehicle in the center of the city.

Col. Taha explained in details that an explosive-packed car parking near the house of police Col. Taher Salah al-Din, killing one of his bodyguards, wounding him and damaging his house.

Another explosive charge went off in a popular market in the Tisaeen neighborhood, Taha said.

A third car bombing caused no human casualties when exploded near a headquarter of a leading Kurdish party, the Kurdistani Patriotic Union, which is headed by the Iraqi President Jalal al- Talabani, he added.

A suicide bomber drove his explosive car into a police convoy carrying Major General Torhan Abdul Rahamn, a provincial deputy police chief, while he was heading to his work in the Kirkuk police directorate, according to Taha.

A fifth car bombing went off near a police patrol in the Wasiti neighborhood.

The attacks came a day after al-Qaida in Iraq named Abu Hamza al-Muhajir to succeed its former leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. air strike last Wednesday.

Source: Xinhua