BAGHDAD, 1 April 2007 — Iraqi officials disagreed yesterday over the death toll in a massive suicide truck bomb attack on Shiites in a northern town that sparked the revenge killing of dozens of Sunnis, allegedly by police. Senior Interior Ministry official Brig. Gen. Abdel Karim Khalaf told a news conference that 152 people were killed on Tuesday and another 347 were wounded when a truck packed with flour supplies and explosives blew up.
“The martyrs from the truck bomb were 152. The truck was searched by the army. They didn’t find the explosives because they were under the flour. The explosion left a 23-meter (76-foot) hole in the ground. That means at least two tons of explosives were used,” Khalaf said.
But speaking to reporters in Baghdad via video-link, Tal Afar Mayor Najim Abdallah slammed that toll as inflated out of proportion, although he admitted that the number of dead may yet rise to 120. “The death toll which we have from the local hospital is 83 dead in the bombing and 191 wounded. It may rise to 110 or 120 ... due to the severity of the explosion as some bodies were blown into pieces,” he said.
“Those figures are blown out of proportion. The reality is that we are still in the middle of clearing the rubble at the site of the explosion and some bodies may still be buried. I have no idea why there is a discrepancy.”
Officials from the Shiite-led Interior Ministry have been appointed by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, along with colleagues from the Defense Ministry, to investigate both the bombing and the reprisal killings.
Lt. Col. Malcolm Frost, commander of US forces in Tal Afar, also brushed aside the Interior Ministry figures saying: “There could be a double count somewhere.” Khalaf said that after the bombing, 18 policemen and two civilians went to a Sunni area and killed 47 people to avenge the deaths of relatives — a lower toll than the 70 deaths initially reported by medics on the scene.
Abdullah broadly agreed with that figure, confirming that 45 Sunnis had died. Khalaf said 16 policemen and two civilians have been rearrested in connection with the shooting rampage after being initially released to mourn their Shiite relatives.
The Tal Afar killings were the worst incident of communal bloodletting in recent months in Iraq and since US President George W. Bush last March hailed the town as a model for coalition efforts to build a new Iraq.
Newly appointed US Ambassador Ryan Crocker reiterated Washington’s support for Maliki’s government. “He (Bush) has been very clear and very determined that he will continue his full support for the government and the people,” Crocker said in his first news conference. “We’ve seen encouraging signals of progress but we have to keep moving forward.”
