Death toll rises to 156 in northern Iraq truck bomb

---

TIKRIT, Iraq, July 8: (XINHUA): The death toll rose to 156 and 255 others wounded in a truck bomb explosion at a popular market in a town in Salahudin province north of Baghdad Saturday, a source from the provincial US and Iraqi liaison office told Xinhua.
"Our final report said that 156 people were killed and up to 255 others were wounded along with 20 more went missing in the attack that targeted outdoor market in the village of Amerli near the town of Tuz-Khurmato," said the source from the Joint Coordination Center of Salahudin province.
Earlier, a police source cited reports from the provincial health directorate as saying that 100 people were killed and some 120 others were wounded.
"A booby trapped truck ripped through a crowded outdoor market in the mixed Shiite Kurdish and Turkoman village of Amerli, near the Tuz-Khurmato town, 90 km east of Tikrit," the source said.
The powerful blast devastated 50 houses, 25 shops and charred 50 civilian cars, along with damage to the town's electricity grid and drinking water pipelines, the source added.
Rescue teams continued to remove debris looking for more bodies, he said.
Officials in the town of Tuz-Khurmato appealed for humanitarian aid to relief the devastated village.
Meanwhile: A US soldier was killed in an explosion near his vehicle during combat operations in Salahudin province north of Baghdad, the US military said Sunday.
Four soldiers were also wounded by the blast that took place Saturday, a military statement said.
On Saturday, the military said that nine of its soldiers were killed and eight others injured largely around Baghdad.
The latest death brings the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq to more than 3,600 since the Iraq war broke out in March 2003, according to media count based on Pentagon figures.
Another report adds: A double car bomb attack on a busy road in downtown Baghdad killed six civilians Sunday and wounded 11 more, city security spokesman Brigadier General Qassim Atta said.
A bomb exploded at the Horreiya Square intersection on the main road through Karrada, a mixed inner city district, followed by a second a few hundred metres (yards) away near the Al-Lami restaurant, he said.
Iraq is in the grip of a series of overlapping civil conflicts between rival political and religious factions, and insurgent gangs opposed to the US-backed government carry out car bombings daily in cities across the country.
Sunday's blasts came a day after a suicide truck bomb killed between 105 and 150 civilians and devastated a market area in the northern village of Emerli, in the worst atrocities since a spate of Baghdad attacks in April.