At least 38 people were killed or found dead in bombings in
The weekly death toll rose after Iraqi police announcedthat Tuesday's truck bombing in Tal Afar, northwest of
In the capital,
Police also said a car bomb near aservice station in the city of
A suicide car bomb targetingworkers has killed two people and wounded 11 in the town of
Also, in the largely Shia town of
Tal Afar
The Iraqi interior ministry has raised the death toll in theTuesday truck bombing in Tal Afar, a mainly Shia city in northwest of Iraq, to152, making it the deadliest single attack since the war began four years ago.
Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a ministry spokesman, said on Saturdaythat more than 70 additional bodies had been found in the marketplace rubble.
Colonel Ibrahim Al-Jubori, the new police chief in Tal Afar,reported his force had found four more victims of apparent Shia revenge attackson Sunni men on Tuesday.
The bodies were shot multiple times and showed signs oftorture, he said.
Lieutenant-Colonel Malcom Frost, commander of US forces inTal Afar, said: "We're still doing rubble removal so there could still bebodies buried."
In other news, the Iraqi government has endorsed plans torelocate thousands of Arabs who were moved to oil-rich
Hashim al-Shebli, the Iraqi justice minister, said thecabinet agreed on Thursday to a study group's recommendation that Arabs who hadmoved to
Tens of thousands of Kurds and non-Arabs fled
Voluntary transfer
Al-Shebli, who had overseen the committee on
He said: "There will be no coercion and the decisionwill not be implemented by force."
Ali Baban, the planning minister, said the cabinet decisionin favour of the relocation recommendations was adopted over the opposition ofSunni Arab members of the Shia-led government.
"We demanded that the question of
"They say the repatriation is voluntary, but we haveour doubts."
Resignation offer
Al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab, also confirmed he had offered hisresignation on the same day that the cabinet signed off on the plan.
He cited differences with the government and his ownpolitical group, the secular Iraqi List, which joined Sunni Arab politicians onSaturday in opposing the
He said he would continue in office until the cabinetapproved his resignation.
"I have differences with the government on one side andwith the parliamentary bloc on another."
The Iraqi List is led by Iyad Allawi, the former primeminister, a secular Shia.
The group holds 25 seats in the 275-seat parliament.
Military deaths
Figures complied by The Associated Press have shown that the
American and Iraqi officials say the Iraqi army has beentaking more of a leading role than the
The AP count of US military deaths for the month was 81,including a soldier who died from non-combat causes on Saturday.
Figures compiled from officials in the Iraqi ministries ofdefence, health and the interior showed the Iraqi military toll was 44.
Iraqi figures showed that 165 Iraqi police were killed inMarch. Many of the police serve in paramilitary units.
According to the AP count 3,246