Bombs in north Iraq kill at least 76

Bombings killed at least 76 people in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Monday, police said, the worst such violence there in recent memory.

Ethnic tensions have been building in Kirkuk, a city with a mixed population of Turkmens, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and Kurds, as it approaches a referendum on its future required by the Iraqi Constitution.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombings, but some residents and observers blamed militants linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq who are attempting to sabotage the political process by bringing sectarian tensions to a boil.

Two of the bombs exploded in quick succession shortly after 11 a.m. The first was a suicide truck bomb outside the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, the party led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. The explosion killed 75 and injured 165, said Kirkuk Police Chief Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir.

Cameran Mohammed, 44, said he watched as a dump truck loaded with construction materials drove up to the PUK office and exploded.

“I saw a large pillar of smoke and flames. There were bodies flying all over the place,” he said. “It was apocalyptic.”

Mohammed said he was struck in the legs by shrapnel. He looked up to see cars ablaze and pools of blood.

He tried to rescue a man trapped in one of the burning cars but couldn’t extract him before the car was engulfed in flames. A second bomb planted in a sedan in the nearby Iskan area exploded about 10 minutes later, police said, wounding one person.

A third bomb exploded in the midafternoon near a police patrol in central Kirkuk, killing a police lieutenant and wounding six people.

Police defused a fourth bomb in the same area where the first bomb exploded, said Rizgar Ali Hamajan, chairman of the Kirkuk provincial council.

Hamajan, a longtime PUK member, blamed militants associated with Al Qaeda in Iraq for the bombings.

“The terrorists want to show people in Kirkuk that living in Kirkuk is not safe,” Hamajan said. “They want to scare them.”

“We call on our people in Kirkuk to stand united against these terrorists’ schemes and make them fail,” he said. “At the same time, we demand that the security apparatuses tighten the security procedures and move swiftly to arrest those standing behind these attacks.”

Omar Azard, who helped rescue a 5-year-old victim of the first bombing, said he thought militants were trying to sabotage the referendum that is to determine whether the city joins the semiautonomous Kurdish region. It was supposed to be held in November but will probably be postponed.

Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament, said the Kirkuk bombings come at a time when the militants are being chased by U.S. forces from Diyala province to the south in one in a series of offensives in cities and towns surrounding Baghdad.

“These people have run away from their organizations and have made a concentration in the Kirkuk area. When you fight them in one area, they go to another area,” Othman said. Security forces should follow their movement and keep the pressure on them, he said.

Militants affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq also have been blamed for a July 7 bombing in the mostly Turkmen town of Amerli to the south of Kirkuk. That bombing killed an estimated 150 people and injured 250.

The Kirkuk area is a frequent target of attacks. In April, a truck bomb targeting a police compound in Kirkuk killed 12 people and wounded 130.

President Bush held a lengthy video conference call Monday with Iraqi leaders including Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in which he urged them to make progress toward reconciliation.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said the White House continues to back Maliki as prime minister, but when it comes to political progress, “the prime minister in and of himself can’t do it.”

“The president made it clear that he understands how difficult it is and he also understands that leaders have to take on difficult situations and make accomplishments,” Snow said. He added that Bush emphasized to the Iraqi leaders that political progress is essential for continued support in the U.S.

Outside of Kirkuk, explosions and shootings killed at least 17 people across Iraq on Monday. In south Baghdad, three people were killed and seven injured in a mortar explosion.

Six people were killed, five of them police, and 20 were injured when a suicide car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Harithiya, police said. Another car bomb exploded near a playground in an eastern neighborhood, killing two sisters, 21 and 18, and injuring their 11-year-old brother. Police in the capital recovered 25 unidentified bodies Monday.

Northeast of Baghdad, five Iraqi soldiers died and nine were injured when a roadside bomb exploded during a midnight patrol.

The U.S. military announced that a soldier died Monday in the southern city of Diwaniya of non-battle-related causes, bringing the total number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq since 2003 to 3,616, according toicasualties.org, a website that tracks deaths in Iraq.

The military also announced a new offensive south of Baghdad that is intended to prevent militants and weapons from entering the capital. It is part of a broader effort that began in the area on June 1 in which the U.S. military says 83 militants have been killed and 278 detained. The military says it also has uncovered 51 weapons caches in the operation.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Times staff writers Maura Reynolds in Washington; Said Rifai, Wail Alhafith and Zeena Kareem in Baghdad; and special correspondents in Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk contributed to this report.