Bombs hit northern Iraq, forces expect more

By Aws Qusay

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombs in four parts of northern Iraq killed at least six people on Wednesday, and Iraqi forces said they expected more attacks as they pursue Sunni Arab militants in the volatile north.

With violence falling in other parts of Iraq, the ethnically and religiously mixed provinces north of the capital Baghdad remain the most volatile parts of the country.

Al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants driven out of other areas have sought refuge in the fertile river valleys of the north. Tension between Arabs and Kurds has also simmered in cities and villages along the frontier with the Kurdish autonomous region.

In a sign of the ethnic tension, the central government said it had asked ethnic Kurdish forces to withdraw from an area outside their autonomous region. The Kurds said they had not agreed to pull back their troops to Kurdistan.

The U.S. military said a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing an Iraqi soldier, two civilians and wounding 15 people.

A parked car bomb in the town of Qaiyara south of Mosul killed two people and wounded nine. A roadside bomb near Baquba north of Baghdad killed a woman and wounded two.

Another suicide car bomber struck the mayor's office in the small town of al-Motaqa near the ethnically divided city of Kirkuk on Wednesday. The mayor, Abdul Karim al-Jubouri, who also leads pro-U.S. security volunteer forces in the area, was wounded along with three bodyguards.

Disagreement between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen over control of Kirkuk has held up a provincial election law, delaying voting throughout the country and paralyzing its politics.