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KIRKUK: At least 55 people were killed and 93 wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a restaurant near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Thursday, the city’s deputy police chief.

Women and children were among the victims of the attack on the ‘Abdullah’ restaurant, an interior ministry official in Baghdad said.

The blast happened in the early afternoon on the final day of the Eidul Azha holiday at a roadside restaurant 15 kilometres north of Kirkuk.
A defence ministry source and a waiter said that a suicide bomber activated an explosives belt in the middle of the restaurant, where families were dining.

However, the interior ministry official said the blast was caused by an explosives-laden car outside the restaurant.

Inside, victims were lying on the ground with blood on their faces, an AFP journalist said.