Car bomb at Iraq funeral kills nine

A car bomb ripped through a funeral procession near a mosque in central Iraq yesterday evening, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens of others, security and medical officials said.

The explosion occurred at around 5.30 p.m. (1430 GMT) outside the Nabi Ayub Shiite mosque, just south of Hilla, the capital of Babil province, as mourners were gathering for the funeral of a sheikh in the Al-Khafaja tribe.

A doctor at Hilla’s main hospital put the toll at nine killed and 30 wounded, while a police lieutenant said 10 people died and 29 were injured. Conflicting tolls are common in the confusion that follows attacks in Iraq.

Hilla, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, lies along the route to Shiite pilgrimage sites in Najaf and Karbala, and Babil province has itself been the frequent target of attacks by Sunni insurgents.

On September 14, a car bomb outside a restaurant frequented by security force members in the town of Medhatiyah, just east of Hilla, killed 13 people and injured 42.

The deadliest violence in the city this year occurred on May 5 when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car at a police station in Hilla, killing 24 policemen. The attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda’s front group, the Islamic State of Iraq.