Suicide bomber kills at least 55 in restaurant blast

A SUICIDE bomber struck a crowded restaurant in northern Iraq yesterday where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders to discuss long-standing ethnic tensions, killing at least 55 people, police said.

It appeared to be the deadliest attack in Iraq in nearly six months.

Kirkuk, the centre of Iraq’s northern oil fields, has seen fewer attacks than other regions, such as Baghdad, but remains the focus of years of competition and political wrangling among ethnic groups with rival claims to the city.