Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 50 at Iraqi Funeral

A suicide bomber wrought havoc at the funeral of two Sunni Arab militia members in north Iraq yesterday, killing at least 50 people, and injuring another 50, amid an upsurge of attacks against anti al-Qaida security groups.

On Tuesday bombings killed at least 60 people in four cities in mainly Sunni areas in central and northern Iraq.

The target yesterday was a funeral attended by several local Sunni tribal chiefs in the village of Albu Mohammed, in the violent Diyala province, about 90 miles north of Baghdad.

People had gathered to mark the death, from an attack a day earlier, of two brothers said to have belonged to the local Sahwa, or Awakening Council - councils composed of Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents who have joined American forces in fighting al-Qaida militants. The brothers had been shot during an attack by gunmen on a village checkpoint.

Police in Kirkuk, the nearest large city, said the bomber at the funeral wore an explosive vest and detonated his device after striding into a tent that had been set up to receive mourners.

Wounded people were ferried in a convoy of police cars and private lorries to Kirkuk's emergency hospital. Relatives of the injured, some of whom had been present at the funeral, waited for news outside the main gates.

"I was walking towards the tent and it was full of people paying their respects and everything was normal," said Mohammed al-Obeidi, a farmer, who was hoping that his missing son was inside the hospital. "Then I saw a puff of smoke and then a flash and I was knocked to the ground. When I got up I saw horrible things, cars burning, everything flattened."

Obeidi said that many of those present at the funeral were tribal members who had united to fight the presence of al-Qaida in the rural areas north of Baghdad.

US officials suggested the attack was the work of al-Qaida militants determined to fight back against Sunni tribal leaders and their followers who have turned against them over the past year.

But the appearance of the Awakening Councils has also drawn criticism from other Sunni insurgent groups because of the councils' willingness to work alongside coalition and Iraqi security forces, which are dominated by Shias.

The large-scale attacks in Sunni Arab areas, places that have been relatively calm of late, will increase pressure on Iraq's security forces and the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki (the commander in chief), who are engaged in a protracted battle to root out Shia militia groups from strongholds in Baghdad and Basra.

Maliki, in a speech during a trip to Brussels on Wednesday, said Iraq was "near to announcing victory over the terrorist organization al-Qaida". More than 1,300 Shia members of the security forces have deserted in recent weeks rather than fight their compatriots.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed about 17 people in Nimroz, south-west Afghanistan. Ghulam Dastagir Azad, the governor of the province, said the suicide bomber attacked as people prepared for evening prayer at a mosque in the provincial capital, Zaranj. The governor said a district police chief and border reserve police commander were among the dead. More than 30 civilians were wounded.