KIRKUK, Iraq (AFX) - At least 19 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a coffee shop close to a Shiite mosque in the town of Tuz Khurmatu in northern Iraq, police said on a day 22 people died elsewhere in the country.
Colonel Abbas Mohammed Amin, police chief of Tuz Khurmatu, located 75 kilometres south of the northern oil city of Kirkuk, said 25 others were also wounded in the bombing.
He said the bomber reportedly asked for a glass of water before detonating himself, bringing down the old building with the force of the explosion.
Rescuers were searching through the rubble for survivors and the death toll could climb, he added.
Elsewhere in Iraq at least 22 Iraqis, as well as a British soldier who was killed during a raid near Iraq's main southern city of Basra.
The soldier died when British troops raided the tribal area of Garmat Ali, north of Basra to 'apprehend individuals involved in terrorist activities in Basra,' British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said.
He said another soldier was wounded in an exchange of fire during the raid which resulted in the detention of two 'suspected terrorists.'
The soldier's death brought to 114 the British military's losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.
In another incident two more British soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb on the road to Al-Zubair, southwest of Basra, exploded next to their vehicle.
The incidents are part of a pattern of increased instability in the south which had once been considered relatively calm compared with restive Sunni central and western Iraq. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/hjp COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited