Iraq Official: Violence Near Northern City Kills 5 An Iraqi official says five people have been killed in two separate incidents near the disputed northern city of Kirkuk. A senior police official in the city, Brig. Gen Sarhat Qadir, says three street sweepers stumbled onto a bomb on Tuesday morning as they were trying to empty a garbage bin in the nearby village of Zab. The blast killed the three workers. Kirkuk is located 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad. Also on Tuesday, Kirkuk police found two bodies, including that of the district administrator in al-Wihda village. Qadir says the two were shot dead and that an investigation is under way. Violence is down from the days when the country seemed close to civil war in 2006-2008, but deadly attacks still take place almost daily.