40 killed, 64 injured in truck bomb in western Iraq: report

CAIRO, Feb. 25 Kyodo

At least 40 people were killed and 64 others injured Saturday in a fuel truck bomb in western Iraq, Reuters reported.

The truck bomb blew up near a Sunni mosque in a market in the town of Habaniya, 85 kilometers west of Baghdad. It happened a day after the Sunni mosque's imam criticized al-Qaida militants, the news agency said, quoting police and residents.

In the western Iraqi province of Anbar where Habaniya is located, U.S. forces have been battling fierce sectarian violence between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

The United States plans to send over 21,000 additional troops to Iraq and some 4,000 of them will be deployed in the province.

Meanwhile, more than 20 loud explosions in quick succession also rocked southern Baghdad on Saturday, Reuters reported. The cause of the explosions or whether or not there were casualties is not yet known.

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