Up to 47 killed suicide bombing in Kirkuk, NE Iraq

Source: Xinhua | 12-12-2008 07:55

BAGHDAD, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from suicide bomb attack at a restaurant in northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday rose to 47 and some 93 others injured, a local police source said.

A child who was wounded in a bomb attack receives treatment in a hospital in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad December 11, 2008. The death toll from suicide bomb attack  at a restaurant in Kirkuk on Thursday rose to 47 and some 93 others injured, a local police source said.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

"Our latest reports said that 47 people were killed and some 93 others injured in the suicide bomb attack in Kirkuk," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt detonated himself in the afternoon at the Abdullah Restaurant in northern suburb of Kirkuk, the source said.

Earlier, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua that the attack was conducted by a suicide car bomber and put the toll at 20 killed and 45 injured.

Such violence was not unusual in the ethnically mixed oil-rich city, some 250 km north of Baghdad.

Iraq's Kurds have been pressing forward with a campaign to annex the region into its autonomous region, while the Arabs and Turkomans oppose the move.

Iraq is set to hold provincial election in January. But the election in the Tamim province where Kirkuk is located has been postponed mainly because of the dispute of control.