At least 143 die in suicide bombings across Iraq, hundreds more wounded; 40 homes, 20 shops destroyed in village near Baqubah

Above: Aftermath of a suicide car bombing in Baghdad on Thursday which killed at least 17.

Suicide Bombings Kill Nearly 150 in Iraq

Suicide bombings across Iraq killed nearly 150 and injured scores, including a massive truck assault in a northern Shiite village that ripped through a crowded market, officials said Saturday...

The worst carnage unfolded in the Shiite Turkoman village of Amarly, 50 miles south of Kirkuk, when a suicide bomber rammed a truck laden with explosives into the central market, which is near a police station, officials said. The attack killed at least 115 people and wounded at least 210, according to district and hospital officials, adding that they expected the death toll to rise...

Late Friday night, a suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives near a funeral in a remote Shiite Kurdish border village in volatile Diyala province, 75 miles northeast of Baghdad. The blast killed 22 and wounded 17, said officials, according to wire services.

Hours after Saturday's attack in Amarly, a suicide car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad's Zayuna neighborhood, killing at least six people and wounding 20, according to Iraqi television broadcasts.

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Bombers Kill Dozens North of Baghdad

In the worst blast, a truck loaded with explosives demolished dozens of fragile clay-built houses and shops on Saturday in Amerli, a village of poor Shiite Turkmen about 15 miles south of Tuz Khurmato. The Iraqi police said the blast killed 1o5 people and wounded 210 more...

Most of the dead were inside the 40 homes and 20 shops that were destroyed by the blast, said Maj. Nawzad Abdullah of the Iraqi police. Some of the wounded were rushed to hospitals in Tuz Khurmato, but the city’s emergency services were quickly overwhelmed so other victims had to be evacuated much farther away, to Kirkuk and even to Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Major Abdullah said about two-thirds of the dead were buried by their families without first being taken to the morgue or hospital because the family members were terrified that the roads leading out of the village were too dangerous and could be vulnerable to follow-up suicide bombings.

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Surge pushing terrorists into villages?

BAGHDAD, July 7 (UPI) -- A huge truck bomb leveled an Iraqi village Saturday, killing at least 105 people and wounding at least 210 more.

The detonation of a vehicle carrying an estimated two tons of explosives raised fears insurgents pushed out of large cities are plying their grim trade in the countryside.

Witnesses in Amerli told 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, The New York Times reported...

The New York Times said the Amerli attack coincided with military operations nearby in Baquba that appeared to have pushed a large numbers of insurgents out of the city.

Read the rest at UPI