Suicide bombers kill 80 in Iraq

Co-ordianted suicide blasts have killed at least 80 people in the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk.Iraqi police said 136 people were wounded in the Kirkuk blasts and warned that the death toll could rise further.A truck bomber struck in a crowded market near an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.A separate car bomb exploded on a busy street in a commercial area called Iskan near shops and a bus garage. The two blasts came within minutes of each other, police said.A witness at the scene described carnage after the truck bomb in the market. The explosion scattered bodies across the market, set dozens of cars on fire and trapped passengers on a bus where they burned to death, the cameraman said.Meanwhile, south of Baghdad, thousands of US troops have swooped on a suspected al-Qaeda safe haven used to reinforce militants fighting in the capital, the military said.US and Iraqi forces have launched a series of big security clampdowns since the last of 28,000 extra US troops ordered to the country by US President George W Bush arrived a month ago.Their aim is to thwart violence between majority Shias and minority Sunni Arabs which has pushed the country towards full-scale civil war, while winning time for Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to deliver key power-sharing laws.But time is pressing for Mr Bush. Many Americans want their soldiers to come home soon and senior members of the Republican Party have broken ranks to call for a change of war strategy.But Mr Bush says he will not alter course before a September review from General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, his top two personnel in Iraq.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | July 16, 2007

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