A suicide bomber killed 15 people and wounded 10 others on Monday at a funeral near the volatile northern Iraqi oil refinery city of Baiji, security officials said, according to Reuters. It was the latest in a spate of suicide bombings in northern Iraq, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched a major operation to drive out al Qaeda militants. The bomber walked into a funeral tent for a local tribal leader and blew himself up among mourners, who included Salahuddin provincial government officials and members of a local U.S.-backed anti-al Qaeda Awakening Council. "There was a big explosion. The tent was filled with the body parts of mourners. No one can be identified," said one survivor, Ahmed Abdullah, a Salahuddin government official. Funeral tents have frequently been targeted in Iraq's sectarian bloodletting between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis because it is easy for suicide bombers to mingle among mourners without being noticed. Monday's attack took place in al-Hajaj village, 5 km south of Baiji, home to Iraq's biggest oil refinery. The city, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, has been the scene of a number of bombings in the past few months. On Dec. 25, a suicide bomber killed more than 20 people in the city. The commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, Major-General Mark Hertling, said last month that al Qaeda was regrouping in the north after being pushed out of Baghdad and western Anbar province and was still capable of launching "spectacular attacks".
