July 10
MOSUL: Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in northern Iraq last night, killing at least 42people in the deadliest attack since US forces pulled out of towns and cities nationwide just over a week ago.
The bombers targeted two brothers working for the Iraqi security forces in Tal Afar in an attack on a court building used to interrogate suspects, police colonel Khaled Omar said.
The attackers struck minutes apart, with the second explosion engulfing civilians who had gathered to help those hit in the first blast.
The attack was the worst in the strife-torn country since US forces pulled out of Iraqi towns and cities on June 30 under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington.
A doctor at Tal Afar hospital said 35 people were killed and 61 wounded in the attack, which came a day after two car-bombs exploded in the main northern city of Mosul, killing 12 people and wounding dozens more.
Neither of the two brothers targeted by the Tal Afar bombers were killed, police said, but the casualties included women and children.
A further six people were killed and 24 injured when two bombs went off at a market in the large Shia area of Sadr City in Baghdad.
Tal Afar is a mostly Turkmen town between Mosul and the Syrian border, and has often been the target of violence. In March 2007, it was hit in one of the deadliest attacks since the US-led invasion of 2003 when a suicide truck-bomb killed more than 150 people.
The spate of bombings comes just over a week after US troops pulled back from Iraq's urban centres under an agreement that paves the way for a US military withdrawal by the end of 2011.
The four weeks leading up to the partial US withdrawal brought the highest death toll in 11 months. A total of 437 people, including 372 civilians, were killed last month.
Source: The Australian
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