ஈராக்: ஷியா கிராமங்களில் சுன்னிகள் வெடித்த குண்டுகளால் 73 ஈராகியர் பலி

ஷியா கிராமங்களில் தொடர்ந்து சுன்னி தீவிரவாதிகள் தாக்கிவருகிறார்கள். இன்று மட்டுமே பல ஷியா கிராமங்களில் சுன்னி பயங்கரவாதிகள் தற்கொலை குண்டுதாரிகளாக வெடித்ததில் 73 ஷியா பிரிவினர் பலியானார்கள்.

பல இடங்களில் லாரிகளில் வெடிகுண்டுகளை ஏற்றிவந்து வெடித்துள்ளனர். ஒரு இடத்தில் மார்க்கெட்டில் இப்படிப்பட்ட லாரி வெடித்ததில் டிரைவரும் பொதுமக்களும் அங்கேயே பலியானார்கள்.

காயமடந்தவர்கள் பலர் விவசாய டிராக்டர்களில் 43 கிலோமீட்டர் தொலைவில் உள்ள மருத்துவமனைகளுக்கு எடுத்துச்செல்லப்பட்டனர்.

Suicide attacks leave 73 people dead in Iraq
Updated Sat. Jul. 7 2007 8:30 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

At least 73 people have been killed in a series of suicide bombings in Shiite villages north of Baghdad.

In one of the worst attacks a large truck bomb was detonated in an outdoor market Saturday morning, the blast burying victims in the rubble.

The market bombing occurred at about 8:30 a.m., destroying several mud homes in the mainly Shiite Turkomen village of Armili, about 160 kilometres from Baghdad. Farmers' pickup trucks were used to transport the victims to the nearest medical facility, which was 43 kilometres from the site of the strike.

Twenty-five people were killed and 100 wounded were bought to the Tuz Khormato hospital, Saleh Ali, a medic, told The Associated Press.

Villagers said additional victims were still trapped under the rubble of destroyed homes and businesses, and the death toll was expected to continue to rise because many of the injured were considered to be in critical condition.

"Some are still under the rubble with no one to help them. There are no ambulances to evacuate the victims," Haitham Hadad, a resident who evacuated his wounded cousin in his car to Tuz Khormato hospital, told AP.

The hospital was packed with relatives of the victims, many of them weeping as they searched for their family members.

The new strikes come amid reports that six members of the U.S. military were killed in fighting in Baghdad and Anbar province in the west over two days.

While U.S. forces have been focusing their efforts on Baghdad's volatile northern flank in the past three weeks, attempting to slow fighting in the capital, Sunni militants seem to have shifted their campaign to more rural locations.

The string of attacks occurred within hours of each other. On Friday night, a suicide bomber set off a booby-trapped car at 9:30 p.m. outside a cafe in the Shiite Kurdish village of Ahmad Marif roughly 136 kilometres northeast of Baghdad. Twenty-six people were killed and 33 were wounded, a Diyala province security official told AP.

About 30 minutes later, a suicide bomber set off an explosives belt in Zargosh, another Shiite Kurdish village. Twenty-two people were killed and 17 were wounded, according to reports.

Six soldiers killed

On Saturday, the U.S. announced the deaths of six U.S. troops. Most of them occurred in the Baghdad area.

Two were killed Friday in a roadside bombing in east Baghdad.

One U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed Friday when their patrol in southeastern Iraq was attacked.

Two Marines were killed Thursday in western Anbar province and a soldier also died in Baghdad.

One other soldier died Friday though few details have been released about the death, which is still under investigation.

In total, 3,599 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

With files from The Associated Press