Two Kurds, one Arab killed in ethnically diverse Karkouk

The Iraqi police found the body of two Kurds in the downtown of Karkouk stabbed to death, at a time when the pace of tension escalated in the city, following the killing of three Arab and Turkman demonstrators by bullets of Kurdish fighters on Wednesday.

The commander of the Iraqi police in Karkouk, Maj. Gen. Tourhan Youssef, said that "unidentified persons stabbed to death two Kurds, and threw their bodied near a bridge in the downtown of the city."

For his part, the assistant for the police commander said that one Arab Sunni was killed, and two other wounded by the security forces bullets, to the south of the city, where armed Arabs and Turkmans gathered and tried, according to him, to attack Kurdish objectives.

The city which is situated to the north of Baghdad witnessed intensive exchange of fire and the electric power was cut. Tension prevailed on Thursday evening in the city, located 225 Km to the north of Baghdad. Its one million population is composed of Kurds, Arabs and Turkman.