Suicide bomber kills 22 in attack on Iraqi cafe

BAGHDAD. October 30. KAZINFORM A suicide bomber blew himself up in an Iraqi cafe usually packed with Shi'ite Kurds in a town northeast of Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 22 people and wounding 60, officials said. Kazinform refers to China Daily.

The blast in the Diyala town of Balad Ruz was the first major suicide bomb attack in Iraq since early September, as political factions continue to tussle over positions and power almost eight months after an inconclusive election.

Small bombings and assassinations have, however, continued daily following the formal end of US combat operations on August 31, 7-1/2 years after the US-led invasion that triggered ferocious sectarian warfare in Iraq.

"I was near the cafe and suddenly a big explosion happened inside and there was chaos in the area," said Sadeq Abbas, a 41-year-old Kurd from Balad Ruz, which lies roughly halfway to the Iranian border from the volatile city of Baquba.

"Security forces started shooting in the air to disperse the crowd and prevent people from going near the cafe," Abbas said by telephone.

The cafe, a popular venue for playing dominoes, smoking sisha pipes and drinking sweet tea, was destroyed, said Colonel Kadhim Bashir Saleh, a spokesman in Baghdad of Iraq's civil defence force.

Overall violence has fallen sharply in Iraq since bloodshed between once dominant Sunnis and majority Shi'ites peaked in 2006-07, but March's election that produced no outright winner and as yet no new government has stoked tensions.

Incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, is locked in a battle with a Sunni-backed cross-sectarian alliance led by former premier Iyad Allawi to see who can form a coalition government.

Minority Kurds, who have played a kingmaker role in Iraqi politics since the invasion ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, are being courted by both coalitions but appear more likely to side with Maliki and his Shi'ite-led alliance.

Kurds have frequently been targeted by Sunni Islamist groups like al Qaeda seeking to foment ethno-sectarian violence. Diyala's turbulent mix of Sunnis and Shi'ites, and Arabs and Kurds, has made it difficult to bring peace to the province.

Muthana al-Timimi, head of the security committee of the Diyala provincial council, said at first that there might have been a second attack by another suicide bomber on the hospital where the wounded from the cafe blast were taken.

But he later said there had been only one attack. He said 22 people were killed and 60 wounded. Kazinform cites China Daily. See www.chinadaily.com.cn for full version