Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has described last night's attack in northern Iraq as a heinous crime.
However Mr Maliki insisted the incident would not stop Iraqis from facing the challenges and from pursuing the political process.
In one of the bloodiest single incidents of the four-year war in Iraq, 200 people died when bombers detonated four explosive-laden trucks in the villages of al-Qataniyah and al-Adnaniyah.
The suicide attacks apparently targeted the Yazidi religious sect and a total curfew has since been imposed in the area, west of Mosul.
Some 200 others were injured and the search for bodies buried in the rubble of 30 houses destroyed in the blast continues.
It is thought the death toll high due because the tightly packed Yazidi residential compounds were made of mud that shattered with the force of the blasts.
The US military has said it is too early to say who was responsible, but added that the scale and nature meant the attack carried the hallmarks of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Victims were ferried to hospitals across northern Iraq as local clinics struggled to deal with the overwhelming number of dead and wounded.
There are some 500,000 members of the Yazidis sect in Iraq, who all speak a dialect of Kurdish.
Members of the group are often persecuted due to the nature of their ancient religion, which venerates the chief angel often identified as Satan in both Islam and Christianity.
The community has attempted to remain apart from the sectarian and political conflicts gripping much of the rest of Iraq, but in recent months relations with nearby Sunni Muslim communities have worsened dramatically.
