BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – At least 27 people were killed and dozens more wounded today when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Baghdad cafe popular with teenagers using the Internet, police and hospital officials said.
Police and witnesses said emergency workers were still pulling out victims trapped when the blast collapsed part of the building in the west of the Iraqi capital.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Iraq’s al Qaeda wing has stepped up suicide attacks since the start of the year in a campaign to provoke confrontation between the country’s Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims.
More than 30 people were killed in a series of bombings across Iraq on Monday, less than a week before provincial elections that will be a test of political stability more than a year after U.S. troops left.
