LOC12:02
09:02 GMT
IRBIL, July 28 (KUNA) -- As many as ten Iraqi protesters were killed and 40
others were injured on Monday in an explosion that targeted a demonstration
against a newly-inked provincial election law that delays the elections in
Kirkuk "indefinitely", police sources said.
Sources told KUNA that a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt within
a crowd of demonstrators. The attack claimed 10 lives at least and wounded 40
others, they said.
The demonstrations started from central Kirkuk and marched to province
headquarters demanding elections be held as scheduled and implementation of
article 140 on normalization in the province, the sources added.
Protesters also objected to breaking up Kirkuk into three electorates with
specific quotas set for its Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, and Caledonian-Assyrians.
According to article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, the dispute over
oil-rich Kirkuk is to be tackled in three stages; normalization, population
census, and a referendum to determine whether Kirkuk remains a province or
join the self-ruled Kurdistan region.
These phases were slated for December 31, 2007 and are re-scheduled with a
new June 30 deadline.(end)
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