Suicide bomber kills at least 25 at funeral in Iraq

The man being mourned in Jalawla, about 60 miles from Baquba, was Kurdish, and officials suspected that the attacker was an Arab.

BAGHDAD (MCT) - At least 25 people were killed and 45 were injured when a man walked into a tent of mourners and detonated himself in a town north of Baghdad on Monday evening. The death toll was expected to rise, hospital officials said.

The man being mourned in Jalawla, about 60 miles from Baquba, was Kurdish, and officials suspected that the attacker was an Arab. Kurds consider Jalawla, a town of both Arabs and Kurds, a part of greater Kurdistan. The land is contested, and tensions run high between the two ethnic groups.

Under Saddam Hussein, Kurds were displaced by Arabs in many Kurdish regions, and now, a 300-mile strip of land from the Syrian border in Nineveh province to Khanaqeen in Diyala province is disputed. Kurds think the land should be part of their semi-autonomous region, while Arabs want to retain it. This is one of the most volatile issues in Iraq, and officials worry that it could trigger another bloody wave of violence.

The blood didn't just run in Diyala.

In Abu Ghraib, just south of Baghdad, a bomb planted in a mechanic's shop killed at least nine people and injured 23.

In Nineveh province, two suicide bombers, one in Tal Afar and another in downtown Mosul, killed one policeman and injured four others and wounded five civilians.