BAGHDAD, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- At least 25 people died Friday evening when a suicide bomber targeted a cafe in Iraq's Diyala province where Shiite Kurds were relaxing, police said.
Another 70 people were injured when the bomb brought the building down, burying those who had been playing pool or dominos under debris, 2nd Lt. Ali Rubaie told the Los Angeles Times. The cafe was in Balad Ruz, a town between the provincial capital, Baqubah, and the Iranian border that became a refuge for Shiite Kurds escaping the fighting in the Iran-Iraq War.
"I saw people rushing outside the cafe. Some were injured, at least one had lost an arm. Some had no clothes. Others fell down. There was a mixture of blood, dust and smoke," Ali Ismail Kadhim, who works in the neighborhood, said.
The blast was the first major suicide bombing in Iraq since mid-September.
Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, borders Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan. Sunnis are in a majority but the population is a complicated mixture, making for tension and violence.
UPI
