Suicide truck bomber kills 67 in northern Iraq

By Khalid al-Ansary

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 67 people on Saturday as they left a mosque, shortly after the prime minister urged Iraqis not to lose faith if a U.S. military pull-back sparked more violence.

Almost all U.S. soldiers will leave urban centers by June 30 under a bilateral security pact signed last year and the entire force that invaded the country in 2003 must be gone by 2012.

Saturday's attack was the deadliest in more than a year.

"Don't lose heart if a breach of security occurs here or there," Nuri al-Maliki told leaders from the ethnic Turkmen community, reiterating a warning that insurgents were likely to take advantage of the U.S. pull-back to launch more attacks.

Analysts warn there may also be a spike in violence by mainly Sunni Islamist insurgents, including al Qaeda, and other violent groups ahead of a parliamentary election next January.

Hours after Maliki spoke, a suicide bomber detonated a truck filled with explosives as crowds of worshippers left a Shi'ite Muslim mosque near Kirkuk, a northern city contested by Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds that sits over vast oil reserves.

Sixty-seven people died, including women and children, and more than 200 were wounded as about 30 homes made of clay bricks disintegrated in the blast zone around the al-Rasul mosque in Taza, said Kirkuk governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa.

"This is a catastrophe for Kirkuk province and especially the town of Taza," Mustafa said.