03/11/2005, 00.00
iraq
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Mosul public funeral cancelled after attack

Death toll from blast reaches 50.

Mosul (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Relatives of the people killed on Thursday in a suicide bomb attack on funeral mourners in Mosul have called off plans to hold a joint public burial. The decision was made after a mortar went off on Friday morning at the site of the original attack.  A Shia spokesman said relatives decided to hold separate private burials to avoid the risk of another bombing. Meanwhile the death toll from Thursday's  suicide bomb attack on the funeral of a respected Shi'ite professor has reached 50, with nearly 80 wounded. The suicide bomber walked into a large crowd at the funeral in a tent at the mosque compound in the evening and then detonated an explosive belt. Doctors said the toll could rise further, and added that several children who had been at the funeral were missing.

The bloodshed came as Shia and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad said they had overcome a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government. Shia mosques and funerals have become frequent targets of attacks. Last month, bombers attacked a number of them during the Shia commemoration of Ashura, killing nearly 100 people.
Mosul has been a focus for fighting, and the scene of many bombings, drive-by shootings and assassinations targeting the country's security services, majority Shia and people thought to be working with US-led forces. According to AsiaNews sources, the insurgents belong to ex baathist and Islamic fundamentalist groups who want to destroy the path to democracy.

Shi'ite leaders say the attacks are an attempt to provoke sectarian civil war, and have told their followers not to seek revenge. An alliance of mainly Shi'ite Islamist groups won more than half the seats in Iraq's new parliament in the Jan. 30 elections, and is poised to appoint Ibrahim Jaafari, currently one of the country's vice presidents, as prime minister. Sunni Arabs have hardly any representation at all in parliament  - very few people voted in Sunni Arab areas due to fears of unrest and calls for a boycott of the election by several leading Sunni parties. Shi'ite leaders insist they will reach out to Sunni Arabs and bring them into the political process to prevent sectarian rifts in Iraq from widening.
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