Four suicide truck bombs slaughter 175 in Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - At least 175 people were slaughtered and more than 200 wounded yesterday when four suicide truck bombs targeted people from an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq, officials said.

The attacks were carried out in two villages of the northern province of Nineveh and targeted the minority Yazidi community and between them amounted to one of the bloodiest single incidents of the four-year-old war.

Both Iraqi army spokesman Captain Mohammed al-Obeidi and Dakhil Qassim Hassun, the mayor of the municipality of Sinjar, said the four blasts left at least 175 people killed and more than 200 wounded.

The bombs, one of which was in a fuel tanker, exploded in the villages of Al-Khataniyah and Al-Adnaniyah which are mainly inhabited by Yazidis, followers of a pre-Muslim minority faith.