Rescuers face hurdles as Iraq bomb toll set to rise
Friday, 17 August 2007
BAGHDAD, Aug 16 (AFP): Rescuers searching for the victims of four truck bombings in Iraq were facing hurdles Thursday as officials feared the death toll from the bloodiest attack since the war was set to climb.
Tuesday's suicide attacks targeting the ancient Yazidi religious sect have already left more than 200 people dead and 375 wounded and officials expect the casualties to rise further.
"The toll is set to rise as there are many people still trapped under the debris," the interior minstry's director of operations, Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf, told AFP.
Entire families of Yazidis were wiped out after suicide bombers, which the US military said were from Al-Qaeda, blew up four trucks full of explosives in two villages in the northern province of Nineveh.
Two days after the bombings, the rescue operation was continuing as teams of army, police and civilians clawed through the devastation unleashed in the villages of Al-Qataniyah and Al-Adnaniyah.
Hundreds of people, including US troops, local police, soldiers and survivors were taking part in the rescue operation, some helping to hand sift through the rubble, officials said.
"The rescue teams are facing lot of obstacles because the region is far away," Khalaf warned. "It takes a day just to reach the site of the devastation."
The two villages are remote and the closest town is Sinjar, west of the Nineveh provincial capital Mosul. Khalaf said authorities had asked all the nearby hospitals to help the victims.
"We are doing all that we can to help the victims. We have opened the doors of all the hospitals in the region, including those in the Kurdish region."
The US military said it was airlifting food, medicines, bandages and blankets for the victims of the blasts.
"What we are tracking for both villages is between 175 and 200 killed with another 300 wounded," said a spokesman for the US army's Taskforce Lightning.
The military plans to airlift 5,760 meals and, while the US toll was more conservative than that given by Iraqi sources, he said it would send medical supplies to "support approximately 2,000 casualties."
On Wednesday, Zeryan Abdul Rahman, the health minister in the regional Kurdish government said the death toll from the blasts stood at 200 but was expected to rise as corpses were being pulled out from the debris.
Doctor Mohammed Waadallah from the governorate of Nineveh province said 375 people were lying wounded in seven different hospitals.
Tuesday's suicide attacks targeting the ancient Yazidi religious sect have already left more than 200 people dead and 375 wounded and officials expect the casualties to rise further.
"The toll is set to rise as there are many people still trapped under the debris," the interior minstry's director of operations, Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf, told AFP.
Entire families of Yazidis were wiped out after suicide bombers, which the US military said were from Al-Qaeda, blew up four trucks full of explosives in two villages in the northern province of Nineveh.
Two days after the bombings, the rescue operation was continuing as teams of army, police and civilians clawed through the devastation unleashed in the villages of Al-Qataniyah and Al-Adnaniyah.
Hundreds of people, including US troops, local police, soldiers and survivors were taking part in the rescue operation, some helping to hand sift through the rubble, officials said.
"The rescue teams are facing lot of obstacles because the region is far away," Khalaf warned. "It takes a day just to reach the site of the devastation."
The two villages are remote and the closest town is Sinjar, west of the Nineveh provincial capital Mosul. Khalaf said authorities had asked all the nearby hospitals to help the victims.
"We are doing all that we can to help the victims. We have opened the doors of all the hospitals in the region, including those in the Kurdish region."
The US military said it was airlifting food, medicines, bandages and blankets for the victims of the blasts.
"What we are tracking for both villages is between 175 and 200 killed with another 300 wounded," said a spokesman for the US army's Taskforce Lightning.
The military plans to airlift 5,760 meals and, while the US toll was more conservative than that given by Iraqi sources, he said it would send medical supplies to "support approximately 2,000 casualties."
On Wednesday, Zeryan Abdul Rahman, the health minister in the regional Kurdish government said the death toll from the blasts stood at 200 but was expected to rise as corpses were being pulled out from the debris.
Doctor Mohammed Waadallah from the governorate of Nineveh province said 375 people were lying wounded in seven different hospitals.