Kirkuk, Oct 11: Two employees of the Northern Oil Co. Were killed and four wounded in a roadside bombing in Northern Iraq today, the NOC Director General said. The explosion ripped a company bus on the road between Baiji and the town of Riyadh, 40 km west of Kirkuk, the company's director Adel Ghazzaz told reporters. "Two people were killed and the other four seriously wounded," he said. He said two explosions caused large fires at two parallel oil pipelines in the city. The first explosion started a fire on a pipeline linking the northern city of Kirkuk with Al-Debs oil fields, further to the north, Adel Gazzaz said.

A second blast started a fire on a parallel pipeline running at about five meters from the first, he said.

Firefighters rushed to the area to extinguish the fires, Gazzaz added.

Bureau Report