Sunday, June 21, 2009
Up to 70 people killed in Kirkuk truck bombing
KIRKUK, Iraq, June 21 (Xinhua) -- A truck bomb explosion on Saturday killed up to 70 people, including many women and children, and injured more than 180 others in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, a local police source said on Sunday.
"The latest reports of yesterday's truck bombing said that 70 people were killed and more than 180 others were injured," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The booby-trapped truck detonated while worshippers were leaving the mosque after observing the Muslim noon prayer, the source said.
The powerful explosion destroyed some 50 surrounding clay houses and buildings, burying many families under debris, the police said.
The police said they were investigating the incident to find how a truck packed with explosives could enter the neighborhood, while the surrounding checkpoints had orders to prevent trucks from entering the protected slum.
In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the attack in a statement, saying "the ugly terrorist crime against our Turkmen brothers is only an attempt to destabilize the security and to show the Iraqi security force's incapability of taking control after the U.S. troops' withdrawal by the end of the month."
Also on Saturday, Maliki told leaders of ethnic Turkmen minority during a meeting in Baghdad that the U.S. troops' withdrawal from Iraqi cities and towns by the end of this month will be a "great victory" for Iraqis.
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