Death toll rises to 25 in Iraq's suicide attack -- china.org.cn

The death toll from a suicide bombing in Iraq's Diyala province on Monday rose to 25 with 45 wounded, a provincial police source said.

"Our latest report said that up to 25 people were killed and 45 others injured by the suicide attack in a funeral tent in Jalwlaa town, some 140 km northeast of Baghdad," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A man wounded in a suicide bombing in Jalulu, 125 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, is helped by medics at a hospital in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, Monday, March 23, 2009.

A man wounded in a suicide bombing in Jalulu, 125 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, is helped by medics at a hospital in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, Monday, March 23, 2009. [Xinhua]

The suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest inside a funeral tent where people came to morn a brother of the local Kurdish leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) named Hameed Abass Khudadai, the source added.

Among the casualties are officials and tribal leaders, and some of the injured were transferred to Kurdish regional hospitals because of the limited capacity of the local hospitals, the source said.

It was unknown whether Hameed Khudadai, head of PUK in Jalwlaa, was at the funeral when the incident occurred, the source said.

PUK is one of the two major parties in the Kurdish semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq.

Jalwlaa is part of a disputed area near the Kurdish region border, which the Kurds want to annex to their region.

Diyala province, which stretches from eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border, has been the stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq network and other insurgent groups since the US-led invasion in 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2009)