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Suicide bombing on Iraqi funeral kills 50

Iraqi leaders urge calm, procession for Mosul dead cancelled

AFP, Reuters, Mosul
Iraq’s religious leaders called for calm yesterday amid fears of revenge attacks one day after a suicide bomber killed 50 Iraqis and wounded more than 80 in a packed Shia funeral tent in Mosul.
Grieving families cancelled a planned public funeral procession for the victims in the northern city after a mortar shell early on Friday slammed into the site of the carnage 24 hours earlier.
Sunni Muslim leaders, fearful of reprisals, urged calm in the city, Iraq’s third largest and one of its
most ethnically and religiously diverse.
"It was terrorist attack meant to spark civil war but I think the Sunnis and Shias will not succumb," said Nureddine Hayali, a spokesman for the Islamic Party.
Iraq’s Shia clerics urged cool heads after the latest calamity.
The office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual guide for Iraq's Shias, said the revered cleric was calling for "unity and solidarity among all Iraqis despite the attacks targeting the innocent."
Sistani has consistently denounced vigilante justice against
Iraq's Sunnis, perceived as fuelling the insurgency, whom the 15-million strong Shia majority blames for many attacks carried out against it.
In some sections of Baghdad, Shia individuals and militias have started taking action against suspected insurgents, ranging from making arrests to killing individuals, although the incidents arc still, isolated.
The bomber struck on Thursday as mourners gathered next to the Sadrccn mosque, where a service was being held for Hisham al-Araji, the Mosul representative for radical Shia leader Moqtada Sadr.
Shia cleric Sayed Jassem Mohamed recalled the moment when the explosion shredded a jammed funeral tent at 5:20 pm (1420 GMT).
"A ball of fire shot out, followed by falling debris, and panic swept the outdoor tent next to the Sadreen mosque," Jassem said.
"Volunteers started to put out the flames while others evacuated the dead and the wounded from the middle of the tent, which was destroyed by the blast."
Rescuers had to walk through puddles of blood and human remains.
Mosques and local television urged people to give blood, while families thronged the general hospital through the night to identify their dead.
Doctors put the dead at 50 and the wounded at 81.
In Mosul, residents expressed their anger.
"Who pretends this is holy war. The authors of this cowardly attack are looking to destroy Iraq and push it into the abyss," said Jalal Qassem, a doctor.
Sunni Muslim Arabs, perceived as the elite under Saddam Hussein's regime, make up about half of Mosul's 1.5 million population, while the rest are divided among Kurds, Turkmen, Shias, Christians and other groups.
The city is a stronghold of Islamic militant fighters and former regime loyalists. It has been gripped by violence since November when rebels launched an offensive and police abandoned their posts.
The government claimed on Thursday that it has killed or captured 18 of the top lieutenants of al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, except for his man in Mosul, Abu Talha.
Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted fugitive, with a 25 million dollar bounty on his head, has branded Shias as "Jews and traitors" and vowed to target them.
The latest blow for Iraq's majority Shias came as their political alliance, which swept the elections, was putting the final touches on a deal with the Kurds to form a coalition ahead of the new parliament's first session next Wednesday.
Both communities were poised for a taste of real power after being oppressed for decades under
Saddam. The two sides have drafted a three-page principle of understanding that will formalise their alliance, the Shia side said.
"Both sides agree. Most likely it will be signed Sunday," said Adnan Ali, an aide to the frontrunner for prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shia.
The document reaffirms Iraq's commitment to the transitional law (TAL), passed under the US occupation.
With its commitment to a federal and secular Iraq, it will be used to run the country and serve as a building block for a permanent constitution that is to be written and put to a national referendum in October.
"We all agree that the TAL is the constitution for this government," Adnan said, adding it would govern the sensitive issue of the northern oil city of Kirkuk, which Kurds claim as their own.
He said the sides were in accord that Jaafari would be prime minister and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani would be president.
Kurds had insisted on a written agreement, fearful that the Shias, who had initially opposed the TAL's granting Kurds' greater autonomy, would try to roll back their hard-won freedoms.