'Suicide Bomb Kills 55 at Packed Iraq RestaurantBy Marwan Ibrahim, Middle East Online. Posted December 12, 2008.
"The restaurant was full when the bomb exploded," said one survivor. "It sent glass flying and destroyed the walls." At least 55 people were killed and 95 were wounded in a suicide bomb attack in a restaurant near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on the final day of the annual Feast of the Sacrifice holiday.
Families lunching at the "Abdullah" restaurant were among the victims of the deadliest attack in Iraq for nearly six months.
Local tribal leaders and representatives of Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish, were meeting at the restaurant, but they escaped injury as they were in a different room, though four bodyguards were hurt, Sheikh Ali Hussein al-Juburi said.
The blast hit the roadside restaurant 15 kilometres (nine miles) north of Kirkuk and 255 kilometres (160 miles) from Baghdad, police officer Salam Zengana said.
The Abdullah, which was bustling at the time of the blast, is well known for welcoming people from all local communities -- Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and Turkmen, although the area is controlled by Kurdish peshmerga fighters.
"At least 55 people were killed and 95 injured in the attack," according to Torhane Yussef, deputy chief of Kirkuk police.
Waiter Abbas Fadhel said a suicide bomber activated an explosives belt in the middle of the restaurant. Victims were lying on the ground with blood on their faces.
Police appealed for blood donors as the wounded were taken to Kirkuk's main hospital, where Doctor Mohammed Abdallah said: "More and more victims are arriving."
Outside the emergency room, a five-year-old boy was crying, saying he had lost both of his parents.
Reskiya Oji, a 49-year-old Turkmen who was wounded in the arm and the leg, said from a hospital bed that her daughter, four, had been killed.
"I don't know what happened to my two boys," she added, her clothes drenched in blood.
Rezkar Mahmoud, a 24-year-old Kurd with a leg injury, said he had been having lunch with his father, wife and children.' Lees verder: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/112419/
Families lunching at the "Abdullah" restaurant were among the victims of the deadliest attack in Iraq for nearly six months.
Local tribal leaders and representatives of Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish, were meeting at the restaurant, but they escaped injury as they were in a different room, though four bodyguards were hurt, Sheikh Ali Hussein al-Juburi said.
The blast hit the roadside restaurant 15 kilometres (nine miles) north of Kirkuk and 255 kilometres (160 miles) from Baghdad, police officer Salam Zengana said.
The Abdullah, which was bustling at the time of the blast, is well known for welcoming people from all local communities -- Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and Turkmen, although the area is controlled by Kurdish peshmerga fighters.
"At least 55 people were killed and 95 injured in the attack," according to Torhane Yussef, deputy chief of Kirkuk police.
Waiter Abbas Fadhel said a suicide bomber activated an explosives belt in the middle of the restaurant. Victims were lying on the ground with blood on their faces.
Police appealed for blood donors as the wounded were taken to Kirkuk's main hospital, where Doctor Mohammed Abdallah said: "More and more victims are arriving."
Outside the emergency room, a five-year-old boy was crying, saying he had lost both of his parents.
Reskiya Oji, a 49-year-old Turkmen who was wounded in the arm and the leg, said from a hospital bed that her daughter, four, had been killed.
"I don't know what happened to my two boys," she added, her clothes drenched in blood.
Rezkar Mahmoud, a 24-year-old Kurd with a leg injury, said he had been having lunch with his father, wife and children.' Lees verder: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/112419/
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