More of the same in Iraq...

At least 30 people have been killed and many wounded in a suicide attack on a crowd of mourners in Iraq. The attacker detonated his explosives in the Sunni village of Bu Mohammed, near the city of Baquba, north of the capital, Baghdad. Officials said the funeral was for two members of a local group who had died fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq militants.

There have been a number of attacks in northern Iraq this week, with more than 50 people killed in Baquba on Tuesday.

After the apparent successes of the US troop surge and local groups taking on al-Qaeda, the number of deaths from insurgent attacks has been rising over recent months. The monthly figure of people killed rose by 50% in March compared with the previous month, according to the Iraqi government.

The funeral was for two brothers said to be leading figures in the Sunni Awakening Council. Some members of the Sunni community in the area have joined the movement, which works alongside the Americans and Iraqi government to fight al-Qaeda-linked insurgents. The authorities say the insurgents are operating in the Baquba area after being forced out of Baghdad and the western province of Anbar.

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