Iraq suicide bomber hits funeral

BBC

A suicide bomber in Iraq has killed 30 people in an attack in the capital Baghdad, police reports say.

Thirty-two others were injured in the blast which struck mourners at the funeral for a Shia Muslim army officer.

Earlier on Tuesday, a number of Iraqi ministries released data suggesting that the number of civilian killed in Iraq was continuing to fall.

The December death toll was 480, down from almost 900 two months previously and about 2,000 in December 2006.

Tuesday's bomb went off at around 1630 (1330 GMT) in the Zaytouna neighbourhood, in the east of Baghdad.

Mourners had gathered for the funeral of a retired army officer, Nabil Hussein Jassim, who had himself been killed by a car bombing in central Baghdad on Friday.....