UPDATE / Talafar blast resulted from IED – sources

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: Thursday’s earlier blast in Talafar that left three killed and 15 others wounded was the result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack, according to an official security source. “Initial investigations and field examinations in the blast site showed that it was the result of a large IED that ripped through a poultry store in al-Qadissiya neighborhood, northern Talafar, (60 km) northwest of Mosul,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. “Civil defense teams and ambulances rushed to the site to remove the bodies and rescue the wounded,” he added, noting the Iraqi forces cordoned off the area and denied access to civilians. Meanwhile, Dr. Saleh Qaddo Hayder, the director of the Talafar Public Hospital, said most of the wounded were in a critical condition and taken to hospitals in Duhuk. “The hospital received three dead persons, including a four-year-old child, and 15 others wounded, most of them seriously and suffer second-degree burns,” Hayder added. He said that eight were taken to hospitals in Duhuk province for failure to provide treatment for them at Talafar Hospital. Earlier, a local police source in the district said the cause of the blast was not known. Mosul, the capital city of the violence-scarred province of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad. AmR (S) 2