Death toll from suicide bombings in NW Iraq rises to 500

This isn't a positive trend at all. Initially, and still with some news agencies, the reported number killed was at least 175. Then the reports started coming out the number was 200 as more bodies were found. Xinhua was told the number was 250. Now its double that and could rise higher.

The death toll from four apparently coordinated suicide car bombings near Iraq's northwestern town of Sinjar late Tuesday rose dramatically to 500, while 375 others injured, hospital official told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"We have received 500 corpses and 375 others injured people," said Dr. Kifah Muhammad, the manager of the hospital in Sinjar, a town in western Nineveh province.

He added that the death toll could rise further as rescue workers continue to ferry the victims to the hospital. The newly obtained figure from the hospital doubled the death toll Xinhua earlier got from a local police source, which said that 250 people were killed and 300 others injured.

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Suicide truck bomber kills 102 in Iraq

Are you becoming indifferent to all this carnage? Every day it seems worse than the day before. Sometimes the horror is just too much to imagine even with images (which I won't show).

A suicide truck bomber struck a food market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 102 people and wounding more than 200, officials said, the biggest strike in the capital in more than two months.

The attacker was driving a truck carrying food when he detonated his explosives, destroying stores and stalls that had been set up in the busy outdoor Sadriyah market, police said. The blast occurred at 4:40 p.m. as the market was crowded with people buying food for their evening meal.

Officials said at least 102 people were killed and more than 200 wounded as nearby hospitals were flooded with victims from the blast. Many were driven to the hospitals in pickup trucks and lifted onto stretchers while several men helped overwhelmed medics by holding plastic drips.

"It was a strong blow. A car exploded. I fell on the ground. It was in Sadriyah," said one young man with a bandaged head, his face still streaked with blood.

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