Suicide bomber targets mourners as 11 killed in Iraq

A suicide bombing ripped through a Shiite funeral tent in Iraq today, the second such attack in days, killing five mourners and six others died in violence elsewhere, police and medics said.
The bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near a funeral tent in the village of Zahra, north of Baghdad, where family members of a deceased Shiite man were receiving condolences.
Five people were killed and 10 wounded, two days after a copycat attack in nearby Muqdadiyah killed 10 mourners.
Sunni militants including those linked to Al-Qaeda frequently target members of the Shiite majority, whom they regard as apostates.
Iraq has been hit by a surge in violence that has killed more than 2,500 people have been killed this year, including over 310 this month alone.

Analysts point to widespread discontent among Iraq's minority Sunni community, and the Shiite authorities' failure to address their grievances, as the main factors driving the increase in violence.

Also today, a roadside bomb in a Shiite area of Muqdadiyah killed two people and wounded five, while another exploded when people gathered at the scene, wounding four more.
In Baquba, north of the capital, gunmen killed a shopowner, while others shot dead an army officer in the northern city of Mosul.
And gunmen killed a soldier and wounded another in Kirkuk, also in northern Iraq.
Gunmen also crossed into western Iraq from Syria today and clashed with border police, leaving one dead and five wounded.

Iraq has sought to publicly avoid taking sides in the civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and rebels seeking his ouster, but the conflict has spilled over the border on several occasions.