Suicide bomber strikes at funeral in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Unlike so many deaths in this city these days, the passing of Ahmed Lami was remarkable not for its violent end but for its lack of bloodshed: He died of natural causes, at age 65.

But even peaceful death has become a magnet for violence. As his Shiite Muslim family and friends gathered to mourn his passing Tuesday afternoon under a tent in a middle-class, religiously mixed neighborhood on Palestine Street, a suicide bomber walked in, sat down and detonated his explosives, killing at least seven people and injuring 21 others.

The funeral bombing was among several car bombings, shootings and explosions around Iraq on Tuesday that suggested insurgents are finding new ways to evade an ongoing security crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

At the Lami funeral, attendance was smaller than usual for such public events, because fear of death grips the capital. Lami's family even took precautions to guard against a car-bomb attack, blocking off entrances to the tent with a mini-bus and palm-tree trunks.

But the suicide bomber took advantage of common courtesies extended to individual attendees at such ceremonies, where food is served and strangers are welcome to partake.

"The suicide bomber came in and greeted us and sat down," said Lami's cousin, Sabur Abdul-Hussein, who suffered slight shrapnel wounds in the blast. "We thought he was poor, waiting for the feast to be served. We asked each other if someone might know him." After two minutes, Abdul-Hussein said, the stranger blew himself up.

Abdul-Hussein said his family began to feel safer when the new security plan was announced but now thinks the city is gripped by a violence that will not let go. Among the dead were two of Abdul-Hussein's brothers and five of his cousins.

"The scene was chaos; women came out from the deceased's house and started wailing and beating their chests," he said. "And there were my relatives' bodies, scattered and torn to pieces."