At least 175 killed in north Iraq bombings: army

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 175 people were killed when three suicide bombers driving fuel tankers attacked residential compounds home to the ancient minority Yazidi sect in northern Iraq on Tuesday, an Iraqi army captain said.

Captain Mohammad al-Jaad said at least another 200 people were wounded in the bombings 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 and said U.S. aircraft were helping to ferry the wounded to hospitals.

Yazidis are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect and live in northern Iraq and Syria.

Yazidis in Iraq say they have often faced discrimination. In April gunmen shot dead 23 factory workers from the sect in the northern city of Mosul.