Suicide bombers kill 200 in northern Iraq

Suicide bombers kill 200 in northern Iraq
By Andrew England in Cairo and agencies
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: August 14 2007 22:34 | Last updated: August 15 2007 12:08


About 200 people were killed on Tuesday when at least three suicide bombers struck in northern Iraq, according to Iraqi officials.

The attackers targeted members of the ancient Yazidi Kurdish sect in residential areas near the northern town of Sinjar near the Syrian border. Some reports suggested they were driving fuel tankers.

More than 300 people were wounded, according to some, in what would be one of the deadliest attacks since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Abdul-Rahman al-Shimiri, a government official in the area, told AP that at least 30 homes had been destroyed.

The US military said it was too early to say who was responsible, but the scale and apparently coordinated nature meant the attack carried the hallmarks of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. The United States has condemned the attack as barbaric.

The bombings capped a bloody day in Iraq in which the US reported nine deaths, including five service members killed in a helicopter crash west of Baghdad, and a suicide truck bombing north of the capital killed at least 10 and destroyed a strategic bridge linking Baghdad with Mosul.

The violence came as the Iraqi government struggles to resolve a political crisis and shortly after the US military announced it had, with Iraqi forces, mounted a fresh operation, involving 16,000 troops, against al-Qaeda suspects in Diyala province, north of Baghdad.

There have been warnings that al-Qaeda would increase attacks before General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, Washington’s envoy to Baghdad, present a report to Congress next month on the success of President George W. Bush’s Iraq strategy.

Iraqi politicians have been holding meetings to try to find a way out of the political crisis sparked when the main Sunni Arab political alliance, the Iraqi Consensus Front, said it was pulling out of the Shia-led government at the start of the month, leading to the resignation of six cabinet members. The next week, several ministers loyal to the Iraqi National List of Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister, said they would boycott cabinet meetings. Both groups said their decisions were caused by the failure of Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia prime minister, to meet their demands.

Hoshyar Zebari, foreign minister, said the talks aimed to re-engage the Sunni Arab parties and try to reach a consensus on key legislation. “The idea is to really try to work together to overcome the government crisis, make it functional.”

Sectarian divisions have plagued the government and the crisis will make it difficult for parliament to pass a series of laws that Washington hopes will smooth sectarian tensions and coax Sunni insurgents to join the political process.