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Bomb Kills Funeral Attendants

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By PATRICK QUINN, The Associated Press

Published: January 2, 2008

BAGHDAD - A suicide attacker killed at least 32 men gathered in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday to mourn the death of a retired Iraqi army officer, a Shiite who was slain last week in a car bombing blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq.

The attack was a reminder of the dangers that persist despite Baghdad's recent decline in violence and of the peril for any mass gathering in a country where the bereaved often find themselves targets.

In a New Year's message from London, where he flew last week for what his office described as routine medical tests, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said "we witnessed sorrow and pain in 2007, but with the effort and brotherhood of Iraqis as well their insistence to wake up, the year ended with victories and successes."

The government, which has sought to reconcile Iraq's often warring Shiites and Sunnis, took a tiny step toward national reconciliation by sending a draft amnesty bill to the parliament speaker Tuesday. However, the bill drafted by the Shiite-dominated government falls far short of Sunni demands. It covers less than a quarter of those held in Iraqi prisons, and none of those held by the U.S. military.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the draft bill would also exclude those imprisoned for a variety of crimes ranging from terrorism, kidnapping and rape to antiquities smuggling, adultery and homosexuality. It also excludes senior figures of the former Baath regime.

If passed in its current form, the bill could see some 5,000 prisoners released, al-Dabbagh said. The Iraqi government has about 20,000 people in custody, and the U.S. military holds about 25,000.

In Tuesday's bombing in the east Baghdad neighborhood of Zayouna, a mixed Shiite and Sunni district, a man loaded with explosives walked into a funeral tent outside the home of Nabil Hussein Jassim, a retired army officer killed along with another 13 people in a car bombing in downtown Baghdad's Tayaran Square on Friday.

The attack resembled those carried out by al-Qaida in past years, when men in suicide vests targeted funeral tents or processions.

It was the fourth large bombing to target Iraqi civilians or members of the predominantly Sunni tribal movement known as Awakening Councils in the past 10 days. A suicide bomber targeting members of the U.S.-funded movement killed 12 people on Monday in Tarmiyah, just north of Baghdad.

In other violence Tuesday, eight bullet-riddled bodies were found across Iraq. Separately, the bodies of a Sunni policeman and four of his relatives were found in a village north of Baghdad hours after gunmen abducted them from their home.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military announced the death of an American soldier the day before from a noncombat injury. The soldier's name was withheld until family could be notified.

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