More than 100 dead in suicide truck blast

A suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives in the crowded outdoor market of a Shiite farming town north of Baghdad today, levelling houses and stores and killing more than 100 people, officials said.

The blast – hours after a smaller suicide bombing in another Shiite village killed more than 20 – suggested Sunni militants are regrouping to launch attacks in regions further away from Baghdad where security is thinner, beyond the edges of a three-week old US offensive on the capital’s northern flank.