Bombers kill at least 5 in Iraq

An Iraqi officer inspects the bullet-racked car of the police chief of the town of Dibia, near Kirkuk, on Wednesday.NEW: Three bombings within two hours in Baghdad wound several, police sayA police officer in ethnically tense Kirkuk is killedThree people were slain in southwestern BaghdadA police officer died in Ramadi when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol

Baghdad (CNN) -- Bombings in three restive Iraqi cities over the last 24 hours killed five people and wounded several others, police told CNN.

A roadside bomb killed Col. Hussein Namat, authorities said.

Namat was driving from his home in Kirkuk to the town of Dibia, where he served as the commander of the police force. Dibia is about 12 miles north of Kirkuk, which is in the country's north.

There has been longstanding sectarian tension among Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen people in Kirkuk. Namat is Kurdish, but there was no immediate information on whether the bombing was tied to ethnic hostilities.

Over a two-hour period in and around the capital, Baghdad, on Wednesday, three attacks wounded several people, police said. Attackers shot and critically wounded a police colonel while he was driving near Shaab stadium in the east. Five people were wounded in a roadside bombing north of the city in Taji. And a police commissioner was wounded when a sticky bomb attached to his car exploded.

On Tuesday night, three people were killed in Baghdad when a car bomb exploded on a commercial street in the southwestern Saydiya neighborhood. City police said 15 others were wounded.

In Ramadi, more than 60 miles west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol, and one police officer died. Ramadi is in the predominantly Sunni Arab Anbar province, an area engulfed by violence during the height of the Iraq war.

This comes after a deadly Sunday, when 17 bombs exploded across Baghdad, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 80, Iraqi authorities said.

These attacks were the latest in a spate in recent weeks that have raised concerns about Iraq's ability to protect itself.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he plans to meet with Iraqi political leaders this month to discuss whether to request that U.S. troops remain in Iraq beyond the January 1, 2012, withdrawal deadline.

The United Nations office in Iraq has expressed concern about recent violence targeting government and security officials.

Al-Maliki has said al Qaeda and other terrorists are behind the killings, but he also has blamed political movements and security guards, and he has promised to pursue the attackers.

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