Deadly bomb kills 72 in Iraq

POLICE and rescue crews sifted through the rubble of a mosque and dozens of flattened mud-brick homes yesterday looking for survivors of the worst attack in Iraq this year – a truck bombing blamed on al-Qaida that killed 72 people.

Political parties said Saturday’s attack against a Shi’ite mosque near the ethnically tense city of Kirkuk was aimed at destabilising Iraq. The bombing, which wounded 163 people, came as US troops have been withdrawing from Iraqi cities as part of a security agreement that requires all troops to leave the country by the end of 2011.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called for calm.