The fight for Kirkuk has threatened to derail local elections across the country. Feuding in parliament over the city's future has stalled passage of a law that is necessary to hold elections by the end of the year. Parliament members are working to overcome the deadlock by Wednesday, when they adjourn for a month, but have expressed pessimism about prospects for a compromise.
An estimated 3,000 demonstrators were protesting what they say are efforts by Baghdad lawmakers to strip the Kurds of power in Kirkuk through the election law when the bomb exploded. Furious protesters then attacked the nearby office of the Turkmen Front, the local Turkmen television station and an office for prisoners rights.
The Turkmens fought back, security officials said.
Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir said the mob was led by a group of hard-line Kurdish nationalists, who blamed the Turkmens for blocking provincial elections in Kirkuk.
The bombing and ensuing melee left 25 people dead and 190 wounded, but it was not clear who died in the bombing and who died in the rioting.
A curfew was slapped on Kirkuk through this morning to calm the situation.
The bombing and reprisals provided a glimpse of the passions among Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs over the future boundaries of Iraq's Arab north and its Kurdistan region. The problems in the city are the legacy of former dictator Saddam Hussein's policy of forcibly displacing Kurds and resettling Arabs throughout northern Iraq's key cities and other strategic locations.
Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman warned that Sunni militant groups like Al Qaeda in Iraq had concentrated their energies on the ethnic hotbed of Kirkuk. "The people who did this suicide attack are Al Qaeda. They did this just to create problems among Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds," the lawmaker said.
Ordinary residents in Kirkuk worried about the aftermath of Monday's bombing and mob violence. "Today's events will create a big crisis. A solution for the Kirkuk issue must be found," said Burhan Shirko Qadir, a Kurdish merchant.
Turkmens were seething. Turkmen Front local leader Nazhat Abdul-Ghani said four party members had been wounded and seven others kidnapped.
"Today the Kirkuk issue took a dangerous turn," said Jankeez Yousif, a Turkmen who works in the oil industry. He bitterly criticized Iraqi security forces in the city, which he accused of being an extension of the Kurdish political parties -- a common complaint voiced by groups in the north. All sides blamed outsiders for carrying out the bombing.
