Iraq truck bomb kills more than 70 in northern Ira

The attack struck near a mosque in Taza Kharmatu, a predominantly Turkmen Shiite town south of the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, around 1 p.m. (1000 GMT) and claimed women and children among its victims, officials said.

The blast near Kirkuk – a city rife with ethnic tensions – came hours after the prime minister warned Iraqis to expect more violence as U.S. troops withdraw from Iraqi cities by the end of this month, but he insisted the deadline will be met "no matter what happens."

The Turkmen Front, Iraq’s main Turkmen political party, announced three days of mourning and called for an "immediate investigation … and for the criminals to be brought to justice."

The Americans already have begun pulling back combat troops from inner-city outposts in Baghdad, Mosul and other urban areas ahead of the June 30 deadline set in a security pact that calls for a full U.S. withdrawal from Iraq by 2012.

But continued assassinations and high-profile explosions have heightened concerns that Iraqi forces are not ready to take over their own security.

Worshippers were leaving the mosque following noon prayers when the truck exploded, demolishing the mosque and several mud-brick houses across the street, according to police and witnesses.

Rescue teams searched into the night to find people buried under the rubble while women begged police to let them near the site so they could search for loved ones. The U.S. military said it was providing generator lights and water at the site.

Ambulances rushed victims to the overwhelmed hospital in Kirkuk, and some victims had to be taken to nearby cities. Three babies cried as they were placed on a single hospital bed to be treated.

The death toll rose to at least 72 as more bodies were found beneath the debris, according to police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

TURKEY CONDEMNS ATTACK

Turkey's Foreign Ministry condemned the Saturday's attack.

"Turkey attaches great importance to efforts to ensure peace and stability in Iraq, and to provide a peaceful atmosphere among different ethnic and religious groups in Kirkuk. We strongly condemn this heinous attack, one of the most serious attacks against Turkmen society in Iraq," the ministry said in a statement.

"We want to reiterate once again that Turkey is opposed to all kinds of terrorism and that Turkish people commiserate with Iraqi people who lost their beloved ones in the attack. We are ready to bring in those who were injured in the attack for medical treatment. We are taking all kinds of measures including dispatch of an ambulance helicopter to Iraq," it added.

Tensions have risen in the oil-rich area as Iraqi Kurds seek to incorporate Kirkuk, which was once a part of Ottoman Empire, into their semiautonomous region despite opposition from Turkmen, Arabs and other rival ethnic groups.

Officials also have warned that insurgents are likely to stage more attacks after the withdrawal deadline to try to undermine confidence in the government’s ability to protect its people.

The death toll in Saturday’s explosion near Kirkuk, which sits on as much as 4 percent of the world's oil, surpassed an April 24 double female suicide bombing near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad that killed 71 people.