Suicide bomber kills 17 at Iraqi funeral

BAGHDAD, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- As many as 17 people died and nine were wounded Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a funeral tent in a village in northern Iraq, officials said.

Security officials said the bombing occurred at the funeral for local tribal leader Antar Abdullah in a mostly Sunni village near Tikrit, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Abdullah's brother, Ahmed Abdullah, the Salahuddin provincial governor's security chief, had left the funeral minutes beforehand and was not hurt. Other provincial government officials and members of an anti-al-Qaida Awakening Council also survived, police said.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, reported joint Iraqi and U.S. counter-insurgency raids Monday northeast of Baghdad resulted in two militants' deaths and the arrests of 18 suspects, CNN reported.

In the north, police said a booby-trapped parked car exploded near a crowded market Monday, killing two civilians and wounding nine others, Kuwait's KUNA news agency reported. The bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol unit.

In a separate statement, the military said U.S. warplanes Sunday hit a suspected al-Qaida safe house south of Baghdad.

The U.S. military also announced two of its troops were killed in combat, both Saturday, one in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad and the second in a gunfight in Anbar Province.