A car boom targeted the Khezal al-Tamimi husseiniyah, or Shiite place of worship, in central Kirkuk at about 12:55 pm (0955 GMT), followed by a bombing at Imam Ali husseiniyah in the city's northeast, and three bombings at Al-Mustafa husseiniyah in south Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
security and medical officials said.
A roadside kaboom meanwhile went
kaboom!at Al-Ahmedi Sunni mosque.
Sadiq Omar Rasul, the head of Kirkuk health directorate, told AFP that eight people were killed and 80 maimed in the attacks.
And in Baquba, north of Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
, gunnies armed with silenced weapons rubbed out a soldier while a woman and two children were maimed when a roadside kaboom went
kaboom!outside their house in Saadiyah, further east, security and medical officials said.
An AFP correspondent saw the burned bodies of two children and dozens of burned-out cars at Al-Mustafa husseiniyah in Kirkuk.
Hadi Qanbar, who had been praying at Al-Mustafa husseiniyah, said that worshipers were told about the attack on Khezal al-Tamimi and began to leave.
"But when we left, kabooms happened one after another," he said. "We do not know why we were targeted."
Azhar Kamal, who was also at Al-Mustafa husseiniyah, said: "We put the blood of the victims on the hands of the prime minister, and we ask him to protect the people of Kirkuk."
Hassan Hussein, who was at Khezal al-Tamimi at the time of the attack, said the kaboom happened behind the husseiniyah.
"We saw our brothers and friends killed and maimed by this kaboom," he said.
Khezal al-Tamimi husseiniyah is the site of powerful Shiite holy man
Moqtada Tateral-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
's main office in Kirkuk.
Violence in Iraq is down dramatically from its peak between 2006 and 2008, but attacks remain common with 278 people killed in August, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security officials and medics.