Bomb kills 85 in Kirkuk

At least 85 people were killed yesterday by a suicide truck bomb in the volatile Iraqi city of Kirkuk, some of them trapped on a bus where they burned to death, a witness said.

Police also said 180 people were wounded in a blast that heightened tension in the oil-producing northern city, shared by Kurds, Turkmen, Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs. The city plans to hold a crucial referendum later this year on its future status.

"Tens of houses and shops were totally destroyed by the power of the explosion," said General Torhan Abdul Rahman, the city's deputy chief of police.

Dozens of cars were set on fire and Reuters pictures from the scene showed a number of charred and torn bodies in the bus and a large crater in the road where the truck blew up. A police pick-up was splattered with blood.

Kirkuk is not far from Tuz Khurmato, where a massive truck bomb in a crowded market killed at least 130 on July 7, in one of the deadliest single insurgent attacks since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Adnan Sarhan, 30, lost both his eyes and had his back broken in the Kirkuk explosion. He was being operated on while his distraught mother waited for news.