Car explodes near US consulate in Kirkuk

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car packed with explosives exploded near the U.S. consulate in Kirkuk, killing two Iraqis and wounding seven others, Iraqi police said Sunday. The explosion occurred late Saturday night in eastern Kirkuk, said police Col. Burhan Tayeb. No Americans were injured in the explosion, he said. The bombing was the seventh car bombing this month in Kirkuk, where tensions are rising among Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen for control of the area's vast oil wealth. Police also said a sheik was killed and two of his cousins burned when their car caught fire at an intersection in Mosul, about 255 miles northwest of Baghdad. Sheik Salih Yassin Elias had loaded benzene into the trunk of his car to use for generators when the fire started Saturday afternoon, police said.-AP