AFP reports that security forces have ended the siege at a mall in the northern city of Kirkuk early this morning. Nine people at least have been killed.

The attack on the mall in the oil rich city, came amid a surge in unrest that has claimed more than 6,200 lives this year.

Attacks by armed groups were also launched in Baghdad, Mosul, Tikrit and Fallujah, on Wednesday but the assault on the Jawaher Mall in Kirkuk was the deadliest.

A car bomb went off early afternoon in front of a branch of police intelligence, and was swiftly followed by a firefight between security forces and militants who were ostensibly trying to take over the security station.

As the clashes continued, gunmen, some of them wearing suicide vests, stormed the adjacent mall, took shoppers hostage and moved up the five-story complex to the roof, from where they opened fire on security personnel who attempted to enter, report AFP.

At around midnight, security forces finally stormed the mall, which houses more than 100 shops.

They managed to release the 11 hostages unharmed. There are conflicting numbers as to the casualties with security and medical officials sayin nine people were killed in the attack. Some say this includes eight members of the security forces, while other say the 9 victims were civilians. Reports also speak of at least five members of the armed group being shot dead.

The mall, which is popular with middle-class residents of the northern oil hub, lies in a neighborhood populated mostly by ethnic Turkmen.

Kirkuk has a mixed population of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.

Officials, said AFP have blamed the upsurge in violence to a resurgent al-Qaeda emboldened by the civil war in neighboring Syria.