The Black Vault - Blasts, Gunfire Rock Iraqi City of Kirkuk

By TAREK AL-ISSAWI - KIRKUK, Iraq - Two huge blasts that appeared to be from artillery or mortar rounds and gunfire shook the northern city of Kirkuk late Saturday at the end of a second day of ethnic violence in which at least 10 people died here and in a city to the south.

There was no indication of who was shooting, but Turkomen and Kurds have been fighting for two days after the Kurds reportedly damaged a newly reopened Turkomen Muslim shrine on Friday.

American forces were not seen in Kirkuk Saturday night, but U.S. soldiers were part of the violence in Tuz Kharmato, 110 miles north of Baghdad a day earlier.

They killed two Turkomen tribesmen and wounded two others after the Americans were fired on when they arrived to quell the outbreak of ethnic fighting, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, 4th Infantry Division spokeswoman. She said it was the first outbreak of ethnic conflict in the tense region since May.

Capt. David L. Swenson of the 173 Airborne Brigade in Tuz Kharmato told The Associated Press Saturday that several hundred Turkomen protesters had taken to the streets. Swenson said three Turks and five Kurds were killed and 13 people were wounded in the Friday melee.

On Saturday, the violence spread to neighboring Kirkuk, 140 miles north of Baghdad. Kirkuk Mayor Abdul Rahman Mustafa, a Kurd, told the AP that two people were killed and several were wounded. He did not identify the victims' by ethnicity.

CNN-Turk television and private NTV television in Ankara, Turkey, reported that hundreds of Turkomen, carrying blue Turkomen flags, marched on the governor's office. Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported two Turkomen were shot and killed and 11 wounded by Patriotic Union of Kurdistan forces.

Kurds and Turks have been embroiled in ethnic hatred for centuries and have killed each other in the thousands.

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