Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The total death toll rose to 152 and up to 347 others wounded when double truck bomb attacks at a market in a Shiite district in the town of Tal Afar on Tuesday, anofficial told reporters on Saturday.

    The death toll rose to 152 and up to 347 people wounded,Brigadier Abdul Kareem Khalaf, the spokesman of the Interior Ministry said.

    Khalaf also said that 100 homes were blown up by the blasts which were caused by 2 tonnes of explosives that left a 23-metre-ditch in the ground.

    Earlier, Duraid Kashmula, Nineveh's governor put the toll at 140 people were killed and some 200 others wounded in the twin blasts.

    As a reprisal for Tuesday's truck bombing, unknown gunmen stormed a Sunni district in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar overnight and killed up to 70 people.

    On Tuesday, a suicide bomber lured people in the market in TalAfar to buy wheat loaded on his truck before he blew it up atabout 4:00 p.m. (1300 GMT).

    A second car bomb detonated simultaneously in the town that located 70 km west of Mosul City.Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, is located 400 km north of Baghdad.