At least 20 people were killed and many more injured in a truck bomb attack on a busy market in northern Iraq on July 7.

About 22 more died overnight in Diyala province when a suspected suicide bomber destroyed a cafe said to be hosting a funeral gathering.

Elsewhere, police said a family of seven sleeping on a Baghdad rooftop died when a mortar hit the building. Many Iraqis choose to spend hot summer nights sleeping on the roof of their home because of frequent electricity failures.

Early estimates suggested that at least 40 people were injured, many of them seriously, in July 7 market bomb attack in the small village of Amirli, in northern Iraq.

In other violence, one British soldier died and three others were injured in southern Iraq during a night of heavy fighting in Basra.

The US said six of its troops have died in recent days, four in Baghdad and two in the western province of Anbar.