A suicide truck bomber killed at least 28 people, including 19 children, in northern Iraq this morning as the United States and Iran held another rare meeting in Baghdad to talk about the security problems plaguing the country.

At least 40 people were injured in the explosion, which ripped through a densely populated Shia residential area of Tal Afar, a city 420 miles northwest of Baghdad, destroying ten houses. The casualty toll was expected to rise.

The carnage was the latest example of the security woes in Iraq that have prompted officials from Washington and Tehran to meet.

The closed-door discussions were held at the office of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, in the heavily fortified Green Zone, also home to the British and US embassies.

A US Embassy spokesman said: “The security subcommittee agreed to by the US, Iraq and Iran met at the experts’ level.” He said that the US delegation had been led by Marcie Ries, minister-councillor for political-military affairs.

The spokesman was unable to give details on what was covered in the meeting. A spokesman at the Iraqi Prime Minister’s office said only that the talks had ended.

Hossein Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s ambassador in Baghdad, was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying that the meeting would cover the make-up and responsibilities of a tripartite security committee.

Delegations headed by the Iranian ambassador and his US counterpart, Ryan Crocker, failed to agree on ways to restore security to Iraq at a meeting in the Iraqi capital on July 24. The two sides did concur, however, on the creation of the three-way security committee which would explore how to combat militia activity, tackle al-Qaeda and secure Iraq’s porous borders.

The US broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in April 1980 during a prolonged hostage crisis after Iranian students took over the American embassy in Tehran. Since then the two countries have taken part in several international groups but direct contact is rare.

Washington accuses Tehran of arming and training Shiite militias in Iraq — a belief also held by London, which alleges that Iran is providing insurgent groups in the south with explosive devices to attack British troops. Iran denies the claims. It feels that the presence of US forces has stoked the insurgency in Iraq and threatens to undermine security within its own borders.

The US military said that one soldier was killed during fighting in eastern Baghdad yesterday.

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