3 army personnel killed, wounded in traffic accident

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: An Iraqi serviceman was killed and two others were wounded in a road accident south of Kirkuk city, a senior police source said on Thursday. “A soldier was killed and two others, including an army officer, Brig. Younis Zibari, were wounded in a road traffic accident near Daqouq district (35 km south of Kirkuk),” a local police chief, Brig. Sarhad Qader, told IraqiNews.com. The wounded were taken to the hospital for treatment, Brig. Qader noted, providing no further details. Kirkuk, 250 km (156 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, sits on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires, Assyria, Babylonia and Media which controlled the city at various times. Kirkuk is the centre of the northern Iraqi petroleum industry. It is a historically and ethnically mixed city populated by Assyrians, Kurds, Arabs and Iraqi Turkmen. The population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2008. SS (P) 1