The death toll of a gold market robbery in northern Iraq Tuesday has risen to 10, while 13 others were also wounded, the local police source said.

The unidentified gunmen used machine guns and grenades to attack some gold shops in a market in Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, they fired at people there, killing at least 10 and wounding 13 others, the police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"The security forces clashed with the attackers, three policemen were among the dead," he added.

Kirkuk is one of the disputed areas among Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish communities. The area has long been the hot bed of insurgency since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Violence and sporadic high-profile attacks are still common in Iraqi cities as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country more than seven months after violence-torn Iraq held parliamentary elections on March 7.