Men search for survivors buried in rubble after a deadly truck bombing Saturday near Kirkuk. (Emad Matti/ Associated Press)A truck bomb exploded as worshippers left a Shia mosque in northern Iraq on Saturday, killing more than 70 people and wounding nearly 200 in the deadliest bombing this year.
The blast near Kirkuk вЂ" a city rife with ethnic tensions вЂ" came hours after the prime minister warned Iraqis to expect more violence as U.S. troops withdraw from Iraqi cities by the end of this month, but he insisted the deadline will be met "no matter what happens."
Worshippers were leaving the mosque in Taza, 20 kilometres south of Kirkuk, 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.
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.
Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir of the Kirkuk police force said earlier that at least 63 people were killed and 170 were wounded, but he expected the number to rise.
Witnesses said the truck was parked across the street from the mosque and they assumed the driver was praying, although Kirkuk's police chief, Maj. Gen. Jamal Tahir, said investigators were looking into the possibility it was a suicide bombing.
Many of the town's residents had fled to neighbouring Iran under Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime but returned following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmark of al-Qaeda in Iraq or other Sunni insurgents who remain active in northern Iraq despite security gains.
The Americans 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.
