Northwestern Iraq bombings kill at least 175

By Paul Tait

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suicide bombers driving fuel tankers killed at least 175 people in apparently coordinated attacks in northwestern Iraq Tuesday, the Iraqi army said, in one of the worst incidents of its kind in the four-year-old war.

Iraqi army captain Mohammad al-Jaad said at least another 200 people were wounded in the bombings in Yazidi residential compounds in the Kahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair areas near the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, close to the Syrian border.

The mayor of Sinjar, Dakheel Qassim Hasoun, gave the same casualty figures.

Police said the bombings appeared to target the Yazidis, members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect who live in northern Iraq and Syria.

The United States has sent an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq this year and moved them from large bases into small neighborhood outposts in an effort to reduce sectarian violence in the capital and surrounding provinces.

The United States condemned the bombings as "barbaric attacks on innocent civilians," and extended its sympathies to families of the victims.

"Extremists continue to show to what lengths they will go to stop Iraq from becoming a stable and secure country," the White House said in a statement.

"We will continue to work with the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Security Forces to stabilize the country and beat back these vicious and heartless murderers."