The death toll from Saturday's truck bomb attack in a market in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmato may be as high as 150, local officials said on Sunday. Local police and the mayor, Mohammed Rasheed, told Reuters the confirmed death toll was 130, with 250 wounded. But police said 20 people were still missing and presumed dead.
According to Rasheed, the truck bomb destroyed some 50 small shops and 50 houses in the largely Shi'ite Muslim town. On Saturday night, Rasheed had put the death toll at 115. Iraqi officials have blamed Sunni Islamist al Qaeda for the attack.
Many of the victims, women and children who were out shopping at the time, were buried under rubble and it took rescuers hours to dig out their bodies.
Meanwhile, an American soldier died due to a blast near his vehicle during operations in Iraq's Salahuddin province, northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Sunday. The explosion on Saturday wounded four other soldiers, the military said in a statement.
