KIRKUK, Sept 17: A suicide truck bomber firing a machine gun with one hand exploded his vehicle near a police centre Sunday, killing at least 18 people as Iraq’s ethnically fragile northern oil city of Kirkuk was hit by a wave of violence.

Four other blasts rocked the city, killing another four people.

The attack on the police centre, which wounded at least 65 people including the head of the unit, was clearly aimed at Iraq’s fledgling security forces, police said.

“He drove towards the centre, firing the gun with one hand randomly to push back civilians, and then detonated the truck in front of the centre,” a Kirkuk police officer said.

Around half an hour after the attack, a car bomb exploded in front of the Mahaba wa Tasamah (Love and Forgiveness) foundation killing one woman and wounding four others.

The organisation had closed its doors a week earlier after receiving threats from the Al Qaeda linked Ansar al-Sunna organisation.

A second car bomb exploded outside the offices of a private security company, killing two people and wounding three.

A pair of roadside bombs went off within five minutes of each other targeting a passing police patrol in the city, killing a civilian and wounding 12 others.

MORE BODIES: Iraqi security forces have recovered 34 more bodies dumped across the war-torn country, bringing to more than 180 the number of people believed killed in a wave of sectarian murders in the past five days, a security official said Sunday.—AFP