Iraq sect fears annihilation

By Peter Graff

KAHTANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Angry members of a minority sect in Iraq said on Thursday they feared annihilation after scores were killed in possibly the worst suicide bomb attack of the four-year conflict.

Frail clay houses in the centre of Kahtaniya, one of two villages targeted on Tuesday by garbage trucks packed with explosives, were flattened for several blocks.

Chunks of concrete and twisted aluminium lay in the street beside the destroyed homes of hundreds of Yazidis, a minority sect regarded by Sunni militants as infidels.

Estimates of the death toll varied from 175 to 500.

"Their aim is to annihilate us, to create trouble and kill all the Yazidis because we are not Muslims," said Abu Saeed, a grey-bearded old man in Kahtaniya.

Saeed told Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, who made a short tour of the devastated area, that 51 members of his extended family had been killed. About 100 angry Yazidi men gathered as Salih met local officials.

"It's like a nuclear site, the site of a nuclear bomb," Salih, a Kurd, told Reuters.

The U.S. military has said al Qaeda is the prime suspect for the bombings. It had said large-scale attacks were possible before a progress report on the conflict is delivered to Congress on September 15.