Violence is rearing its head in Kirkuk, Iraq, the area of deployment for a South Korean troop dispatch later this year.

The police in the northern Iraqi city said violence is on the rise in the region, in time with the Muslim Holiday, Eid al-Adha.

The city police announced that rockets had been fired Monday at a U.S. military camp in Kirkuk. One Iraqi was reported killed later as American troops investigated the attack.

Some three hours before the attack, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, on a visit to the troubled Gulf state, was reported to be heading for the camp after a meeting in the city's downtown area. On the same day, one city police officer was killed and three wounded at a guard post near the city by an insurgents' attack.

The South Korean government plans to dispatch some 3,000 troops to the war-torn region of Iraq in April.