| This article originally appeared in Kurdistan 24. ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – At least 11 people were wounded after multiple explosions rocked different areas of Kirkuk city on Wednesday night, a Kurdistan 24 correspondent in the area said. Kurdistan 24's Hemin Delo said three explosions took place on the Kirkuk-Baghdad road in the city's commercial district. He added that three rockets landed near a maternity hospital in Kirkuk, wounding at least five people, among them a mother and her two children. Meanwhile, some Iraqi media outlets said at least one person is dead while two of the injured are in critical condition. Iraq's Security Media Center released a statement confirming that three bomb explosions on the Kirkuk-Baghdad road caused injuries to several civilians. Security and health officials, however, have not yet confirmed the exact number of casualties. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the incidents, Iraqi authorities point fingers to Islamic State (IS) sleeper cells which often carry out small-scale attacks, especially in the Kirkuk and Diyala provinces. Soon after IS' emergence in 2014, the Kurdistan Region's Peshmerga and other security forces protected Kirkuk from attacks by the extremist group. Following the Region's historic independence referendum last September, Iraqi forces and Shia militias drove Kurdish troops from Kirkuk and other disputed territories. Since then, the security situation has considerably deteriorated, with IS activities on the rise, including ambushes, kidnappings, suicide attacks, and execution-style killings. Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
This article was originally published in Kurdistan 24. The post Explosions rock Kirkuk city, wound 11 people appeared first on The Kurdish Project. | 
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