US embassy in Baghdad condemns Tuz Khormato attack

People gather outside entrance of a hospital in Kirkuk after the attack The US embassy in Iraq has condemned the attack that targeted civilians inside a mosque in Tuz Khormato district, located between Kirkuk and Salah-il-Din on Wednesday .
"The intended attack against innocent civilians is a cowardly attempt that deserves to be denounced," the embassy said in an official statement issued on Wednesday,  noting that "the attack was aimed at arousing violence and targeted the interests of all Iraqi people."
Thirty-five civilians were killed and over 50 injured in the suicide bombing in the Turkmen-inhabited Tuz Khormato district. Salah-il-Din Governor's under-secretary, Ahmed Abdul Wahid, and the secretary-general of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, Ali Hashim were among the casualties.
 Meanwhile, the Iraqi Turkmen Front issued a statement shortly after the incident, calling on the Iraqi government to hold an urgent session to discuss what they described as "the frequent attacks targeting the Turkmen community in Iraq."
The statement attacked Nouri al-Maliki's government, saying that "the Tuz Khormato incident on Wednesday proved the government’s inability to provide safety for the people."
The Iraqi Turkmen Front escalated their demands, calling on the government to set up a Turkmen force to protect the Turkmen community against the attacks targeting them.
"Everybody in Iraq knows that the Turkmen were exposed to consistent targeting since 2003, because they were, and are still, the keenest on the unity of Iraq," the statement read. "We have made countless calls to the government to protect us, now we find ourselves in a position to urge the United Nations to be up to its responsibility in protecting the Turkmen community in Iraq."