IRAQ: Suicide bomber kills at least 6 at funeral

Record ID: 353122

  • Title: IRAQ: Suicide bomber kills at least 6 at funeral
  • Date: 7th October 2009
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNNAMED WITNESS SAYING: "When he (the suicide bomber) walked into the corridor the relatives of the dead stood up to receive him and sit him down, but he opened his shirt and shouted Allah Akbar (God is the greatest) and blew himself up. This is what has happened."
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAAFHZTT4NQ5SXCF4QXEBK5RE9T
  • Story Text: A suicide bomber walked into an Iraqi funeral tent and blew himself up on Monday (October 5), killing at least six mourners and wounding 15, Iraqi police said.
    The toll from the attack in the town of Haditha, 190 km (120 miles) west of Baghdad, could rise, police said.
    "When he (the suicide bomber) walked into the corridor the relatives of the dead stood up to receive him and sit him down, but he opened his shirt and shouted Allah Akbar (God is the greatest) and blew himself up. This is what has happened," said one of the men who was at the mourning session.
    Once the heartland of a raging Sunni Arab insurgency, Iraq's western Ambar province has calmed down since Sunni tribes allied with U.S. troops kicked out Al Qaeda in 2007.
    But Islamist militants have shown themselves still capable of launching frequent bomb attacks. Crowded gatherings are favourite targets of some militant groups as they seek headline-grabbing death tolls.
    In August, a car bomb in a crowded market in Haditha killed 6 people and wounded 21.
    Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is attempting to woo voters across the ethnic and sectarian divide ahead of national elections scheduled for January, has been keen to portray himself as the man who brought security to Iraq.
    He is fighting the election on a law and order ticket. In the northern city of Mosul, currently the epicentre of Iraq's insurgency, Iraqi police say they have arrested at least 200 suspected insurgents in sweeps in the past week.
    Violence has fallen sharply across the country in the past 18 months, but it remains a dangerous place.
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