AFP GETTYUNARMED AND UNPROTECTED TURKMEN COMMUNITY IN IRAQ TARGETED ONCE AGAIN
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070709/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
(excerpt)
CARNAGE IN TURKMEN TOWN OF AMIRLI
There was a horrific carnage Saturday when a truck bomb devastated the public market in Amirli, a town north of the capital whose inhabitants are mostly Shiites from the Turkoman ethnic minority.
There was still confusion over the death toll.
Two police officers — Col. Sherzad Abdullah and Col. Abbas Mohammed Amin — said 150 people were killed. Other officials put the death toll at 115. Abbas al-Bayati, a Shiite Turkoman lawmaker, told reporters in Baghdad that 130 had died.
Regardless of the precise figure, the attack was clearly among the deadliest in Iraq in months. It reinforced suspicions that al-Qaida extremists were moving north to less protected regions beyond the U.S. security crackdown in Baghdad and on the capital's northern doorstep.
In a joint statement, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said the attack against the Turkoman Shiites was "another sad example of the nature of the enemy and their use of indiscriminate violence to kill innocent citizens."
Turkish military air ambulances evacuated 21 people wounded in the attack for treatment in Turkish hospitals, the country's Foreign Ministry said. Turkey feels special responsibility for its ethnic brethren, the Turkoman, who speak a Turkic language.
During a news conference Sunday in Baghdad, al-Bayati criticized the security situation in Amirli, saying its police force had only 30 members and that the Interior Ministry had finally responded to requests for reinforcements only two days before the attack.
In the absence of enough security forces, al-Bayati said authorities should help residents "arm themselves" for their own protection.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070709/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
(excerpt)
CARNAGE IN TURKMEN TOWN OF AMIRLI
There was a horrific carnage Saturday when a truck bomb devastated the public market in Amirli, a town north of the capital whose inhabitants are mostly Shiites from the Turkoman ethnic minority.
There was still confusion over the death toll.
Two police officers — Col. Sherzad Abdullah and Col. Abbas Mohammed Amin — said 150 people were killed. Other officials put the death toll at 115. Abbas al-Bayati, a Shiite Turkoman lawmaker, told reporters in Baghdad that 130 had died.
Regardless of the precise figure, the attack was clearly among the deadliest in Iraq in months. It reinforced suspicions that al-Qaida extremists were moving north to less protected regions beyond the U.S. security crackdown in Baghdad and on the capital's northern doorstep.
In a joint statement, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said the attack against the Turkoman Shiites was "another sad example of the nature of the enemy and their use of indiscriminate violence to kill innocent citizens."
Turkish military air ambulances evacuated 21 people wounded in the attack for treatment in Turkish hospitals, the country's Foreign Ministry said. Turkey feels special responsibility for its ethnic brethren, the Turkoman, who speak a Turkic language.
During a news conference Sunday in Baghdad, al-Bayati criticized the security situation in Amirli, saying its police force had only 30 members and that the Interior Ministry had finally responded to requests for reinforcements only two days before the attack.
In the absence of enough security forces, al-Bayati said authorities should help residents "arm themselves" for their own protection.
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