Suicide bomber kills six at Iraqi funeral

8.25am - By FARIS MEHDAWI

KHALIS, Iraq - A suicide bomber exploded a car in the middle of a funeral gathering in an Iraqi town north of Baghdad Tuesday, killing six people and wounding 35.

The blast in Khalis, about 50 miles from Baghdad, was the bloodiest guerrilla attack in Iraq since an interim government took charge from U.S.-dominated administration on June 28.

A senior police commander was among those wounded in the attack on the funeral for the brother of the town's mayor, police said. Tents had been erected in the street to shelter mourners paying condolences to the man's family.

"A suicide bomber drove right into the funeral gathering and his car exploded," said witness Ghassan Sabah Kadhem.

The bombing shattered a relative lull in guerrilla attacks since Washington's handover to the interim government and occurred a day after US warplanes bombed a suspected militant target in Falluja, killing 13 people and wounding seven.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government said it would unveil a new security law Wednesday for wider powers to combat guerrillas, an announcement that has been delayed.

Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said the law would empower the government to impose curfews, set up checkpoints and search and detain suspects. The measures would be temporary and would apply only in parts of Iraq.

Allawi, like Washington, blames Saddam Hussein's supporters and foreign Islamic militants for guerrilla attacks that have wreaked havoc since last year's US-led invasion and has vowed to crush them.

Allawi said Iraqi intelligence had led to Monday's US air strike on a house in Falluja, that he said was used by a group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whom Washington accuses of having links to al Qaeda.

"The people of Iraq will not tolerate terrorist groups or those who collaborate with any other foreign fighters such as the Zarqawi network to continue their wicked ways," Allawi said.

Hospital sources said women and children were among the casualties in the raid, the fifth strike on Falluja in three weeks.

Allawi wants to bolster Iraqi opinion against Zarqawi, but openly supporting US air strikes is risky. Many Iraqis are angered by Zarqawi's tactics, but few are convinced that US raids kill only foreign militants, rather than Iraqi civilians.

US patrols came under fire in Falluja and Ramadi, another Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad, witnesses said.

The American military had no word on the attacks, but said three Marines were killed in action in western Iraq Monday.

The deaths brought the number of US soldiers killed in combat to more than 640 since the start of the war.

Joining a battle of words on the internet and Arabic satellite TV channels, Iraqi gunmen calling themselves the Salvation Movement vowed to hunt Zarqawi because he "is not a son of this country and has killed thousands of its people."

"We will track him down wherever he is and arrest him and his followers or kill them," one of four masked men said in a video aired by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television.

There was no way to verify the existence of the previously unknown group.

The new government is building up Iraqi security forces, but still relies on about 160,000 mostly US troops.

Nato experts held talks with Iraq's defence minister on how to implement an offer by the military alliance to help train the country's fledgling armed forces.

(With reporting by Lin Noueihed in Baghdad, Nazih Saddiq in Tripoli, Fadel Badran in Falluja, Mike Peacock in London and Miral Fahmy in Dubai)

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq