Iraqis Urged to Take Up Arms for Defense

A bombing casualty from the village of Armili is brought to a hospital in Kirkuk, Saturday, July 7, 2007. A suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives in an outdoor market Saturday, killing at least 23 people and wounding at least 86 others in a village of Shiite ethnic Turkomen, Armili, 165 kilometers (100 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Emad Matti) (Emad Matti - AP)

Two police officers _ Col. Sherzad Abdullah and Col. Abbas Mohammed Amin _ said 150 people were killed. Other officials put the death toll at 115. Abbas al-Bayati, a Shiite Turkoman lawmaker, told reporters in Baghdad that 130 had died.

Regardless of the precise figure, the attack was clearly among the deadliest in Iraq in months. It reinforced suspicions that al-Qaida extremists were moving north to less protected regions beyond the U.S. security crackdown in Baghdad and on the capital's northern doorstep.

In a joint statement, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said the attack against the Turkoman Shiites was "another sad example of the nature of the enemy and their use of indiscriminate violence to kill innocent citizens."

Turkish military air ambulances evacuated 21 people wounded in the attack for treatment in Turkish hospitals, the country's Foreign Ministry said. Turkey feels special responsibility for its ethnic brethren, the Turkoman, who speak a Turkic language.

During a news conference Sunday in Baghdad, al-Bayati criticized the security situation in Armili, saying its police force had only 30 members and that the Interior Ministry had finally responded to requests for reinforcements only two days before the attack.

In the absence of enough security forces, al-Bayati said authorities should help residents "arm themselves" for their own protection.

The call for civilians to take up arms in their own defense was echoed Sunday by the country's Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, who said all Iraqis must "pay the price" for terrorism.

"People have a right to expect from the government and security agencies protection for their lives, land, honor and property," al-Hashemi said in a statement. "But in the case of (their) inability, the people have no choice but to take up their own defense."

He said the government should provide communities with money, weapons and training and "regulate their use by rules of behavior."

Another prominent Sunni lawmaker, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had failed to provide services and security but he stopped short of saying his followers would seek to topple the Shiite-led government in a no-confidence vote.

The CBS Evening News reported Saturday that a large block of Sunni Iraqi politicians will ask for a parliamentary vote of no-confidence against al-Maliki's government on July 15.

"The situation has become terribly bad," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press. "All options are open for us. We are going to study the situation thoroughly, and we are going to look into the possible measures which go with the interests of the Iraqi people. We will also consider whether to keep on with the government or not."