Mosul (Iraq), August 15
More than 200 people were slaughtered when four suicide truck bombs targeted the ancient ‘Yazidi religious sect’ in northern Iraq amid growing fears that more dead were still trapped under the rubble.
In one of the bloodiest single incidents of the four-year-old war in Iraq, bombers detonated four explosive-laden trucks in two villages in the province of Nineveh, inhabited by members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority yesterday.
The attacks in the villages of Al-Khataniyah and Al-Adnaniyah killed more than 200 people and wounded another 200, said Dakhil Qassim Hassun, Mayor of the Sinjar municipality.
The victims were ferried to hospitals across northern Iraq as local clinics struggled to deal with the overwhelming number of dead and wounded, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors.
“The casualties are expected to rise as many victims are still trapped under the debris,” Hassun told AFP.
The White House condemned the bombings as “barbaric attacks on innocent civilians,” and vowed to help Iraqi forces “beat back these vicious and heartless murderers,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
The US military gave a lower death toll of 60 but said five car bombs had exploded in the region and 20 houses destroyed.
“Four vehicles were reported to have entered a crowded bus station and exploded as soon as they were inside of Khataniyah, killing approximately 30 people,” a military spokesman said.
It said another car bomb exploded in a residential area of Al-Jazeera, southwest of Khataniyah and killed another 30 people.
The Yazidis sect has a population of about 500,000, speak a Kurdish dialect but follow a pre-Islamic religion and have their own cultural traditions.
The community has attempted to remain aloof from the vicious sectarian and political conflicts gripping Iraq, but in recent months relations with nearby Sunni Muslim communities have worsened dramatically.
— AFP
