Baghdad  - At least three people were killed and two injured Monday when a bomb exploded in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police told the German Press Agency dpa.

The bomb tore through a street in the al-Tahrir neighbourhood of eastern Mosul, police said, adding that the two injured civilians had been brought to hospital.

Mosul, some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, and its environs are

among the most ethnically diverse areas of Iraq, and among the most dangerous.

Despite successive security raids that police say have netted hundreds of suspected insurgents, armed men continue to launch near- daily attacks with deadly effect.

In the city of Kirkuk, police found the body of prominent local businessman Shahin Mahmoud Shahin. Shahin, who had been abducted earlier this week, was found with a bullet in his chest in the neighbourhood of al-Hai al-Sanai.

Elsewhere in the city, police found the body of a young man aged about 30. Police said he had apparently been tortured to death.

Tensions have been high in Kirkuk in recent days.

On Monday, at least five people were killed and 10 injured when a powerful car bomb ripped through the Khan al-Tamir market in the centre of the city.

The region has long been the centre of a tense political standoff between Kurdish politicians - many of whom hope to make Kirkuk the capital of a future independent state - and Arab and Turkmen politicians, who view the city and its nearby oil fields as integral parts of Iraq. (dpa)