MOSUL (Iraq), Aug 15: A suicide car bomber killed eight Kurdish peshmerga militiamen and wounded 51 others on Tuesday in an attack on an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s party, a Kurdish minister said.

“Eight peshmergas were killed and 51 others wounded in the attack,” said Ziriyan Othman, health minister of the Kurdish administration in the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The attack took place at 10:00am in Taamin, a district of the restive northern city of Mosul, where there is tension between Iraqi Arabs and Talabani’s fellow Kurds.

The peshmerga continue to oversee security in Kurdistan. Kurdish leaders, including Talabani, have resisted all calls for them to be disarmed.—AFP