More than 200 people were killed when four suicide truck bombs targeted the Yazidi religious sect in northern Iraq amid growing fears Wednesday that more dead were trapped under the rubble. In one of the bloodiest single incidents of the four-year war in Iraq, bombers detonated four explosive-laden trucks in two villages in the province of Nineveh inhabited by members of Iraq's Yazidi minority late Tuesday.
The blasts in the villages of Al-Khataniyah and Al-Adnaniyah killed more than 200 and wounded another 200, said Dakhil Qassim Hassun, mayor of the Sinjar municipality, according to AFP.
Victims were evacuated to hospitals across northern Iraq as local clinics struggled to deal with the overwhelming number of dead and wounded. "The casualties are expected to rise as many victims are still trapped under the debris," Hassun told AFP.
The US military gave a lower death toll of 60 but said five car bombs had exploded in the region. "Four vehicles were reported to have entered a crowded bus station and exploded as soon as they were inside of Khataniyah... killing approximately 30 people," the military said in a statement on Wednesday.
It said another car bomb went off in a residential area of al-Jazeera, southwest of Khataniyah and also killed another 30 people.
US forces also said an unknown number of people were trapped under the debris and up to 20 houses were destroyed.
Also 10 more American soldiers were reported killed on Tuesday, including five when their helicopter crashed in the western province of Al-Anbar.
