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Rescuers are still searching for survivors of the attack, which officials now say killed 130 people and injured 240 others, many seriously.
Mr Maliki blamed insurgents for the attack, saying their actions were showing signs of desperation. The US commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, said he expected a series of similar-scale attacks in coming weeks. He said Sunni extremists would seek to pull off attacks to "grab the headlines", he told the AP agency. In other violence on Sunday: - At least 23 Iraqi army recruits were killed, and 27 wounded, in a suicide truck bomb attack on a recruiting centre east of Falluja, local sources said
- Baghdad was hit by two bomb attacks, although there was no confirmation of casualty numbers.
Local officials suggested that the attack in Amirli bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents, adding that the attackers could have chosen the small town after fleeing from increased US operations in the town of Baquba, to the south. "Because of the recent American military operations, terrorists found a good hideout in Salaheddin province," Ahmed Jubouri, an aide to the province's governor, told AP. An extra 30,000 US troops have been deployed in Iraq as part of a "surge" strategy designed to increase security. |
