200 dead in Iraq blasts, deputy oil minister kidnapped

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A destroyed vehicle lies at the scene of a suicide bomb attack in Hilla, south of Baghdad, Wednesday.

BAGHDAD, Aug 15 (AP): Rescuers dug through the muddy wreckage of collapsed clay houses in northwest Iraq Wednesday, uncovering victims of four suicide bombings that Iraqi officials said killed at least 200 people in one of the worst attacks of the war.
The victims were members of a small Kurdish sect - the Yazidis - sometimes attacked by Muslim extremists who consider them infidels.
Four suicide truck bombers struck nearly simultaneously Tuesday, killing more people than any other concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City.
It was most vicious attack yet against the Yazidis, an ancient religious community in the region. Some 300 people were wounded in the blasts, said Dakhil Qassim, the mayor of the nearby town of Sinjar.
Qassim said the four trucks approached the town of Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, from dirt roads and all exploded within minutes of each other. He said the casualty tolls were expected to rise.
The bombings came as extremists staged other bold attacks Tuesday: leveling a key bridge outside Baghdad and abducting five officials from an Oil Ministry compound in the capital in a raid using gunmen dressed as security officers. Nine US soldiers also were reported killed, including five in a helicopter crash.
The Yazidis comprise a primarily Kurdish religious sect with ancient roots, that worships an angel figure considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians. Yazidis, who don't believe in hell or evil, deny that.
A grainy video showing gruesome scenes of the woman's killing was later posted on Iraqi Web sites. Its authenticity could not be independently verified, but recent attacks on Yazidis have been blamed on al-Qaida-linked Sunni insurgents seeking revenge.
Meanwhile, the US military heralded success in Day Two of a nationwide offensive against Sunni insurgents with links to al-Qaida and Shiite militiamen. Ten thousand US troops and 6,000 Iraqi soldiers were involved in air and ground assaults across Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, both north of Baghdad.
More than 300 artillery rounds, rockets and bombs were dropped in the Diyala River valley late Monday and early Tuesday, the US military said in a statement. Three suspected al-Qaida gunmen were killed and eight were taken prisoner, the military said. American troops also discovered several roadside bombs rigged to explode, as well as a booby-trapped house, it said.
In the Iraqi capital, US special forces and Iraqi soldiers detained three suspected al-Qaida in Iraq leaders and four Shiite militia suspects in separate raids Tuesday, the military said. Another Shiite extremist accused of attacking US forces was captured the same day in Najaf, a Shiite holy city 100 miles south of Baghdad, it said in a statement.
At least one of the trucks in Tuesday's bombings was an explosives-laden fuel tanker, police said. Shops were set ablaze and apartment buildings were reported crumbled by the powerful explosions.
Witnesses said US helicopters swooped in to evacuate wounded to hospitals in Dahuk, a Kurdish city near the Turkish border about 60 miles north of Qahataniya. Civilian cars and ambulances also rushed injured to hospitals in Dahuk, police said.
In other violence Wednesday, a suicide car bomber killed two people and wounded seven south of Baghdad, according to Iraqi police. And a parked car bomb targeted a police patrol in southern Mosul, killing a civilian and injuring ten others, police and army officers said.
Meanwhile, gunmen dressed as local security forces Tuesday stormed into a heavily uarded state compound in Baghdad to kidnap the deputy oil minister in the highest profile abduction in Iraq for months.
Deputy Oil Minister Abdel Jabar al-Wagaa was dragged out of the compound of the state oil marketing company at gunpoint with several other people in broad daylight Tuesday, oil ministry officials said.
"At 4:00 pm (1300 GMT), a gang wearing Iraqi security uniforms broke into the compound and kidnapped five employees, including al-Wagaa," Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told state telvision.
He said that some of the hostages had already been released, but declined to specify a number or clarify whether Wagaa was among them.
"We marshalled all our forces and are carrying out raids on various hide outs and some of the hostages have been freed," he said.
"It was a criminal gang, they have no political or sectarian motives," Shahristani told the television station by telephone.
Oil is Iraq's most valuable natural resource but development has been hampered by sabotage, corruption and instability. The Iraqi government has also massively hiked the price of petrol since the 2003 US-led invasion.