DHAKA: A car bombing near a cafe in a packed market killed at least 30 people and wounded 40 others in a town northeast of Baghdad on Thursday.

The blast struck in Saadiyah, a town in restive ethnically-mixed Diyala province, according to a police colonel and a doctor, both speaking on condition of anonymity.

It went off at about noon in the market for groceries, in a neighbourhood populated mostly by Faylis, or Shia Kurds, Iraqi officials said, reports The Straits Times.

The attack struck a day after violence across Iraq, including a spate of bombings in Baghdad, killed 59 people and left more than 100 wounded, the latest in a protracted surge in violence nationwide.

BDST: 1757 HRS, NOV 20, 2013
RoR/JCK