Suicide bomber kills 15 at funeral 04/04/2008 - 10:13:14
A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded eight at an Iraqi funeral today.
The attacker blew himself up in the middle of the mourners attending the funeral for a Sunni policeman who was shot dead last night
Most of the victims of the attack in Sadiyah, a town 60 miles north of Baghdad appeared to be relatives.
Meanwhile in Basra, Iraqi special forces captured a suspected militant leader who has been rallying insurgents to fight against coalition forces.
And a US plane bombed insurgents engaging Iraqi special forces in the city killing two militants.
Fighting has been continuing for 10 days since Iraqi forces launched a major operation to rid Basra of Shiite militias and criminal gangs that had effectively ruled the city since 2005.
But the offensive stalled in the face of fierce resistance and an uprising across the Shiite south spearheaded by the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Fighting eased last Sunday when al-Sadr ordered his fighters to stand down under a deal brokered in Iran.
But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, insisted that the campaign to reclaim Basra was on track and that he would soon go after “criminal gangs” in Baghdad and elsewhere.
Mr Maliki specified two Baghdad districts, Sadr City and Shula, where the Mahdi militia holds sway and where US and Iraqi forces have clashed with militants in recent days.
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