Police said the blast occurred on the evening of 31 October in a busy restaurant district of Al-Basrah, Iraq's second largest city.
The death toll was expected to rise as many of Al-Basrah's restaurants located near the site of the bombing were packed with people out for the evening during Ramadan festivities.
Also on 31 October, the United States reported that seven more U.S. service members had been killed in insurgent bomb attacks. This brought the number of Americans killed in October to at least 92, the highest monthly total since January, when 106 U.S. servicemen were killed.
(Reuters)
