Suicide truck bomb kills more than 70, wounds 200 in northern Iraq

Police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said the death toll from Saturday's attack was so high because most of the 30 homes that were damaged around the mosque were made of mud, AP reported. The mosque was flattened.

"The operation has al-Qaida fingerprints," he said, adding that an investigation was ongoing.

The Americans already have begun pulling back combat troops from inner-city outposts in Baghdad, Mosul and other urban areas ahead of the June 30 deadline set in a security pact that calls for a full U.S. withdrawal from Iraq by 2012.

But continued assassinations and high-profile explosions have heightened concerns that Iraqi forces are not ready to take over their own security.

Worshippers were leaving the mosque following noon prayers when the truck exploded, demolishing the mosque and several mud-brick houses across the street, according to police and witnesses.

Rescue teams searched into the night to find people buried under the rubble while women begged police to let them near the site so they could search for loved ones. The U.S. military said it was providing generator lights and water at the site.

Ambulances rushed victims to the overwhelmed hospital in Kirkuk, and some victims had to be taken to nearby cities. Three babies cried as they were placed on a single hospital bed to be treated.

The death toll rose to at least 72 as more bodies were found beneath the debris, according to police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

TURKEY TO SEND AID TO VICTIMS

Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned the attack and coordinated with other ministries to make preparations to help the survivors.

The Prime Ministry Directorate General for Emergency Rule said in a statement that the preparatory efforts had begun after providing the necessary coordination among the General Staff, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Health and the Turkish Red Crescent.

"Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that we could bring in those who were injured in the attack for medical treatment by a military plane. We are planning to send humanitarian aid including medical equipment, foodstuff and potable water to the people in Kirkuk by the same plane," it said.

"Turkey attaches great importance to efforts to ensure peace and stability in Iraq, and to provide a peaceful atmosphere among different ethnic and religious groups in Kirkuk. We strongly condemn this heinous attack, one of the most serious attacks against Turkmen society in Iraq," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Tensions have risen in the oil-rich area as Iraqi Kurds seek to incorporate Kirkuk, which was once a part of Ottoman Empire, into their semiautonomous region despite opposition from Turkmen, Arabs and other rival ethnic groups.

Officials also have warned that insurgents are likely to stage more attacks after the withdrawal deadline to try to undermine confidence in the government’s ability to protect its people.

The death toll in Saturday’s explosion near Kirkuk, which sits on as much as 4 percent of the world's oil, surpassed an April 24 double female suicide bombing near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad that killed 71 people.

Photo: Reuters