Gunmen kill civilian in Kirkuk

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: A civilian was killed on Wednesday in an armed attack in southern Kirkuk , a source from the Kirkuk operations room said. “Unknown gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniform showered a civilian with bullets in al-Azouba region in southern Kirkuk , killing him instantly,” the source told IraqiNews.com. “The body was sent to the city’s morgue,” he added, noting that investigation underway to know the reasons behind killing him. 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. SH (P) 1