Suicide blasts kill 22 in northern Iraq

The bombers, one in a car and the other wearing an explosive vest, apparently targeted civilians outside a car dealership in the city, 90 miles east of the Syrian border. The attack happened at around 11am (0800 GMT), Reuters reported.

The latest violence came as funeral processions were getting under way for many of the more than 200 victims of the atrocities that hit Baghdad yesterday, the deadliest series of attacks since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Late last night the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said she was "saddened to hear of further barbaric acts of terrorism" in Baghdad.

"Such attacks only serve to show how little the terrorists have to offer the Iraqi people, and the importance of building national reconciliation," she said in a statement.

Baghdad remained under a 24-hour curfew aimed at stopping revenge attacks. Hundreds of men, women and children chanted and cried as they walked beside vehicles carrying the coffins of their loved ones.

"God is great. There is no God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah," about 300 mourners chanted as they beat their chests while walking through the Sadr City slum where the attacks happened.

The bodies were later taken for burial in the holy Shia city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad.

As crews continued removing pieces of human flesh from the wreckage of the car bomb attacks, tents were erected where the families of the dead could receive condolences from friends and relatives.

Three mortar rounds exploded in the Azamiya area of Baghdad at 9.45am today near the Abu Hanifa mosque, Sunni Islam's most important shrine, wounding one guard, the mosque's sheik, Samir al-Obaidi, said. The rest of Baghdad remained mostly quiet this morning, police said.

More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1956281,00.html