Blast Near Mosul Kills at Least 25

by Bunk | September 10, 2009 at 01:49 pm

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Another attack in Northern Iraq today. America is preparing to leave Iraq soon, but it is looking more, and more likely that Northern Iraq is starting to look very unstable. Kurdish leaders in the North and Baghdad's Shiite leaders. This is the root of the problems recently. With this insurgents, as well are making the region even more unstable. Iraq in the near future will have no American forces to back itself up with. There is real danger for the North of Iraq becoming a battle ground and home for insurgents again, when American forces leave.

BAGHDAD — A huge explosion in a small Kurdish village in northern Iraq on Thursday left scores dead and wounded and raised renewed concern that insurgents are exploiting ethnic tensions and political wrangling to establish new bases for strikes across the country.

The blast, in Wardak, outside the divided and violent city of Mosul, killed 25 people, according to Kurdish officials, and was so powerful that it flattened a dozen houses. Residents worked through the night to pull victims from the rubble and treat the 43 people who were wounded.

The death toll from the blast might have been worse, officials said, had they not stopped a second truck packed with explosives before the vehicle’s driver could detonate them. The driver was killed by the Kurdish pesh merga forces that provide security for the area, the officials said.

Wardak is a tiny village, with only about 300 houses, made mostly of mud with wood ceilings. Three sides of the village are protected by sand berms, with a shallow river providing a fourth barrier. Nevertheless, two suicide bombers drove through the river under the cover of night, arriving shortly after midnight, local officials said.