Baghdad - At least one person was killed and 36 injured Saturday in three bombings across Iraq as voters in the semi- autonomous northern Kurdish region went to the polls to elect a new parliament and president. A roadside bomb exploded as police patrolled the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, police Colonel Salah Sabr told the German Press Agency dpa. Five policemen and one civilian were wounded in the blast on Corniche Street, he said.
The attack came as Kurdish voters, many of whom hope to make Kirkuk and its nearby oil fields the capital of a future independent Kurdish state, cast their ballots.
The Kurdish parliament last month approved a draft constitution that included the city in its definition of Kurdistan.
The bombing in Kirkuk followed twin car bombs in Falluja, in Iraq's Sunni heartland, some 50 kilometres west of the capital Baghdad. The first targeted the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, an influential Sunni Arab political group. One person was confirmed dead.
In what appeared to be a coordinated attack, a second car exploded near a restaurant in the north of the city.
"Among the 30 wounded people, five are in a critical condition and were rushed to a hospital for treatment," police told the Aswat al- Iraq news agency.
The offices of Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party were severely damaged. A vehicle ban was imposed in the city and roads leading into it were closed after the attack.
Falluja was the site of some of the worst fighting between Sunni insurgents and US and Iraqi forces until the government persuaded armed groups to switch sides and form Sahwa Councils to maintain security with promises of weapons, training and money last year.
Since then, the city has been relatively quiet, though a series of recent attacks targeting those who work with the government have raised concerns that insurgents may be regrouping in the area.
Last week, Sheikh Naim Salih al-Halubsi, the leader of the local Sahwa, or "Awakening," Council, was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.
