BAGHDAD — A truck bomb exploded as worshipers left a Shiite 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, a city rife with ethnic tensions, 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.”
The Americans already 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.
Worshipers were leaving the mosque in Taza, 10 miles south of Kirkuk, after 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.
Ambulances rushed victims to the overwhelmed hospital in Kirkuk, and some victims had to be taken to nearby cities.
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.
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.
Yellman Zain-Abideen, who was wounded by shrapnel in his hand and face, cried for his missing son who had been leaving the mosque with him when the blast occurred.
He blamed local authorities for not providing sufficient security in the mainly Turkomen area, which is surrounded by Sunni villages. “There should have been guards around the mosque; we are living in an area surrounded by enemies,” he said.
AP Television News footage later showed men using pickaxes and shovels to dig dozens of graves in the cemetery behind the mosque to bury the victims.
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.
Tensions have risen in the oil-rich area as Kurds seek to incorporate Kirkuk into their semiautonomous region.
Officials also have warned that insurgents are likely to stage more attacks after the withdrawal deadline to try to undermine confidence in the government’s ability to protect its people.
