KIRKUK, (AFP) – Twenty-five people were wounded on Saturday when three car bombs exploded outside the homes of officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said.

“At about 6 am (0300 GMT) three booby-trapped cars exploded simultaneously outside the homes of three officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in north Kirkuk, wounding 25 people,” said Brigadier General Adel Zeinalabedine, a senior police commander in the city.

The PUK, a Kurdish former rebel movement, is led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

The multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, 240 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad, lies at the heart of an oil-rich province which is at the centre of a dispute between Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds.

In other violence on Saturday, twin mortar attacks, targeting Baghdad’s Abu Nawas neighbourhood and the fortified Green Zone which houses many embassies and government institutions in the capital, wounded two people. Both casualties were in Abu Nawas.