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Cafe blast kills 28 near Kirkuk - Tuz
Khurmatu
17.7.2006
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Kirkuk, Kurdistan-Iraq, July 17 -- The death
toll from a suicide bombing in a coffee shop in
Kurdistan (northern Iraq) has risen to 28 people,
according to the latest toll from police.
A suicide bomber walked into the cafe in the town
about 75km south of the Kurdish northern oil city of
Kirkuk and reportedly asked for a glass of water
before blowing himself up.
"Of the dead, 25 were Turkmen Shiites and three
others were Kurds," said Colonel Abbas Mohammed Amin,
police chief of the town of Tuz Khurmatu where the
bombing took place.
He added that most of the dead were elderly.
Another 19 people were wounded in the attack on the
cafe, which was close to a Shiite mosque in the
eastern part of the town.
"The building had collapsed with the force of the
explosion so we are still searching for people in
the debris," Col Amin said.
The toll could rise further as some families have
reported that their relatives are still missing.
The entire northern province of Kirkuk is a delicate
ethnic and sectarian mix of Kurds, Turkmen, Sunni
Arabs as well as Shiites from different ethnic
groups.
Though assassinations and shootings are regular
occurrences in Kirkuk city and in the restive
western part of the province, large scale suicide
explosions targeting civilians have been
comparatively rare.
Kirkuk city is not under the full control of
Kurdistan Regional Government administration. The
future of the area [of Kirkuk] will now be decided
directly by the local population in a referendum in
2007.
AFP
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