Counting bodies by Claudia Sonea

In northwestern Iraq, areas in the town of Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, four truck bombers exploded within minutes of each other. According to local officials (including Hashim al-Hamadani, a senior provincial security official; Kifah Mohammed, director of Sinjar hospital; and Iraqi army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed) and police there were 250 bodies pulled from under the crumbled houses and 350 people were injured. They expect the death toll to rise around 500. Because the area was under curfew and the wounded were taken to various hospitals, the figures provided by the authorities could not be checked independently. Amin Farhan, the only Yazidi legislator in Iraq's 275-seat parliament, said that 50 houses completely collapsed trapping entire families beneath mud bricks and other wreckage. The carnage was an act of ethnic cleansing, bearing the hallmark of al-Qaida. The target was the Yaizidis, a small Kurdish sect centered near Mosul, who is considered to be infidel by some Muslims. A week before the attack an al-Qaida front group, the Islamic State in Iraq, distributed leaflets warning about the attack near the area where it happened and motivating it with religious reasons. Rescuers are still trying to dig out from under clay houses shattered by the blast impact. It was the worst one since ever, the lower death estimate was higher than the number of people killed last November (23) in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City- 215. A young boy yelled in pain while his bloodied face was nursed and a toddler had his head and arms bandaged. Hospitals were overwhelmed and the rescue vehicles were hold back by the curfew. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized the terrorism that endangers their national unity. In Iraq the situation is bad; at least 44 people were killed or found dead this week. How will be the progress report on Iraq delivered by the top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus? Stay connected and you will find out.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070815/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=Ata3Fl_9D5bXlGWz.fT.OjWs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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