Suicide bomber strikes Iraq cafe as attacks kill 47

KIRKUK: Violence in Iraq killed 47 people on Friday, with the deadliest attack a suicide bombing that ripped through a crowded cafe, leaving 38 dead, police and doctors said.

The bomber struck at a cafe in the city of Kirkuk as people thronged the streets after the iftar meal that breaks the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Thirty-eight people were killed and 29 wounded in the south Kirkuk blast, police and Dr Ibrahim Shakur said.

Dozens of family members of the victims gathered in front of the main hospital in Kirkuk, some with blood on their clothes.

People cried and screamed, waiting to know the fate of their relatives.

"While people were gathered in this cafe, a fat man entered ... and we didn't hear anything except 'Allahu akbar' (God is greatest), and then everything was destroyed," said Ahmed al-Bayati, who was wounded in the leg.

"There were burned wounded people and burned martyrs," he said.

All cafes in Kirkuk closed after the attack, the first time a suicide bomber targeted a cafe in the city.

"We closed our cafe in case there were more attacks," said Yahya Abdulrahman, the owner of a cafe in the same area as the bombing.

"We don't know why we were targeted today," he said.

"Those that were targeted today are people of Kirkuk from all its components," Abdulrahman said, referring to the various ethnic and religious groups that make up the city.

Police and Kurdish security personnel deployed in force around the site of the attack and the hospital.

Iraq has been hit by a surge in violence that has killed more than 2,500 people have been killed this year, including over 300 this month alone.