Deadliest Iraq bombing in a year kills 72 near mosque

FRIENDS and relatives were yesterday mourning the loss of 72 lives in Iraq's deadliest bombing in more than a year.

A truck packed with explosives was detonated outside a mosque in the north of the country on Saturday, injuring about 200. Iraqi police say the bombing bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda attack. However, last night, it remained unclear if it was the work of a suicide bomber, or if the truck had been booby-trapped.

More than half of the victims were pulled from the rubble and dust of some 70 clay-brick homes that were flattened in the blast near the northern city of Kirkuk.

Askar Zaman, one of the survivors, said ten relatives had been killed, including sons and grandsons. Another, Hussein Azab, said he lost eight members of his family. Black flags and banners of mourning fluttered from poles all over the Shiite Muslim village of Taza, ten miles south of Kirkuk. The victims were swiftly buried in the local cemetery.