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Iraq bomb kills at least 115, wounds 200 at marketplace

The blast north of Baghdad signals a shift by insurgents.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 8, 2007

TUZ KHORMATO - A suicide truck bomber blasted a Shiite town north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 115 people, police said, in a sign Sunni insurgents are pulling away from a U.S. offensive around the capital to attack where security is thinner.

The marketplace devastation in the farming town of Armili wounded more than 200 and underlined a hard reality in Iraq: There are not enough forces to protect everywhere. U.S. troops, already increased by 28, 000 this year, are focused on bringing calm to Baghdad, while the Iraqi military and police remain overstretched and undertrained.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said he expected Sunni extremists to try to "pull off a variety of sensational attacks and grab the headlines to create a 'mini-Tet.' "

He was referring to the 1968 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Tet offensive that undermined public support for the Vietnam War in the United States.

In Saturday's attack -- among the deadliest this year in Iraq -- the truck detonation ripped through the market in Armili, 100 miles north of Baghdad. It came about 8:30 a.m., as crowds had gathered for shopping.

Witnesses in Armili described a horrific scene of people running while on fire, and others shrieking for rescuers to pull them free from beneath scores of buildings that were turned into rubble by the blast.

Most of the dead -- nearly three-quarters of them women, children and elderly -- were inside the 40 homes and 20 shops that were destroyed by the blast, said Maj. Nawzad Abdullah of the Iraqi police.

While residents and police dug through the wreckage for hours, victims were ferried in farmers' pickup trucks 30 miles to the nearest hospital, in Tuz Khormato.

Weeping and screaming relatives searched Tuz Khormato's hospital frantically for word of loved ones. Ali Hussein read the names of victims being moved farther north to Kirkuk for treatment. "My cousin died in the explosion, but I don't know the fate of my brother," he said in tears.

Abdullah Jabara, deputy governor of Salahuddin province where Armili is located, told Iraqi state TV that 115 people died and blamed al-Qaida. Police gave a similar death toll, along with more than 200 wounded, though Tuz Khormato's police chief, Col. Abbas Mohammed Amin, put the toll at 150 dead.

The attack's location suggested it was carried out by Sunni extremists fleeing the 3-week-old U.S. offensive centered at the city of Baqubah, 60 miles to the south on Baghdad's northern doorstep. The sweep aims to uproot al-Qaida militants and Sunni insurgents using the area to stage car bomb attacks in the capital.

U.S. commanders acknowledge that many insurgents fled Baqubah before the assault, and they may have found easier ground for attacks farther north.

"Because of the recent American military operations, terrorists found a good hideout in Salahuddin province," said Ahmed al-Jubouri, an aide to the provincial governor.

Armili is a town of 26,000 people, mostly Shiites from Iraq's Turkmen ethnic minority. Residents say tensions are constantly high with Sunni Arabs who dominate the surrounding villages. Iraqi security presence is scant in the remote region.

"The number of Iraqi police and army in this area is too low," said Haytham Khalaf, 37, whose niece was injured.

Extremists hit a similarly isolated location hours before the Armili blast. Friday night, a suicide car bomber hit a funeral tent in the Kurdish Sunni village of Zargosh, about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing 22 people.

The U.S. military reported Saturday that roadside bombings killed two soldiers in Baghdad on Friday.

Information from the New York Times was use in this report.

Iraq developments

2 Americans killed: The U.S. military on Saturday reported that roadside bombings killed two soldiers in Baghdad on Friday. A British soldier was killed in fighting with Shiite militias overnight in the southern city of Basra.

Visit to captives: Five Iranians who have been held by the U.S. military in Iraq since January received their first visit Saturday from Iranian diplomats.

[Last modified July 8, 2007, 01:05:48]