In Iraqi Hamlet, 'A Funeral Service In Every House'

Maj. Khalaf Abdullah, Amerli's deputy police chief, said the blast destroyed more than 50 houses, most collapsing over their inhabitants, and demolished 45 shops. It also badly damaged 20 houses and 35 vehicles.

"There is a funeral service in every house in the town," Abdullah said.

In the market, the truck bomb left a crater 12 feet deep. Shops and houses not reduced to rubble were badly charred.

The bomb exploded during the morning rush hour, when people come to the market to buy food or to take a minibus taxi to nearby Tuz Khormato or Kirkuk, officials said Sunday.

Mohammad Rasheed Barzanjy, the mayor of Tuz Khormato, said that last week, al-Qaeda insurgents threatened to attack the area because residents supported military operations around Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province.

"It is safe, secure and peaceful, and they are trying to paralyze and confuse the government with such attacks to show the world they can reach any place to prove the failure of the police," Barzanjy said of the insurgents. "But in fact they are showing the world how savage and cruel they are by targeting innocent civilians."

He then uttered the names of victims he knew: Qanbar Abdullah al-Bayati, who died along with his wife and five sons, two of whom were children, and Muhsin Shaheed Akbar, who lost four sons who were working in their workshop in the market.

"This is wholesale death that has devastated a small, quiet peaceful town, breaking the residents' self-esteem and dignity," said Taherr al-Bayati, a judge in Kirkuk who was born in Amerli.

On Sunday, local Turkmen organizations mobilized to help deliver medicine and food parcels to victims, as district officials pledged to restore electricity and water, which was disrupted by the powerful blast. One Turkmen group promised to take 150 of the wounded to neighboring Turkey for treatment.

Still, the anger and frustration were palpable. Angry crowds threw rocks at a delegation led by Hamad Hamoud Shagtti, governor of Salahuddin province, blaming officials for failing to protect the village. The delegation was forced to cut short its visit, said Barzanjy, the mayor. Many residents demanded compensation.

Zainulabideen Rustum Abdullah, 58, lost his wife, three daughters, his grandson and his daughter-in-law. He suffered burns, and shrapnel struck his head.

"We were wiped out mercilessly, and we blame the Americans, the Iraqi government, the criminals and all the politicians who brought us catastrophe and destruction," he said. "They have destroyed everything with their sectarianism and politics."

Abdul Razak Taqi al-Bayati lost a son, Qanbar, a taxi driver who was parked in the market. In the rubble, Bayati first unearthed his son's necklace, with its small pendant the shape of Iraq. Then, he found Qanbar.

"I recognized my son's hand, which was severed from the body, by the tattoo inscribed on it," recalled Bayati, 55, who had a wrinkled face and wore a dark blue traditional tunic. "When I went home, I found my home totally collapsed."

On Sunday, he was on his way to Kirkuk hospital to see his 4-year-old grandson, Sajjad. Shrapnel was embedded in his abdomen and his legs were badly burned. A few hours later, the two boarded a plane to Turkey for medical care.

Qanbar was Sajjad's father.

A special correspondent in Kirkuk and K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad contributed to this report.