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A suicide bomber has detonated explosives at a funeral in northern Iraq, killing more than 20 people and wounding scores, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The attack took place on Saturday near Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province.<\/span> Sunni anger<\/strong><\/span> Source: BBC News<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A suicide bomber has detonated explosives at a funeral in northern Iraq, killing more than 20 people and wounding scores, officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
It is no yet clear who was behind the bombing. Sectarian violence has surged across the country in recent months, reaching its highest level since 2008.<\/span>
Observers say Nineveh has become a rallying point for insurgents from the Sunni community.<\/span>
More than 5,000 people have been killed so far this year in Iraq, 800 of them in August alone, according to the United Nations.<\/span><\/p>\n
Police said the latest attack targeted the funeral of a member of the Shabak people.<\/span>
The Shabak, who number about 50,000 and live between the Mosul plain and Baashiqa, have their own distinct language and belief system.<\/span>
They largely follow a faith considered an offshoot of Shia Islam, and are frequently targeted in attacks by Sunni militants.<\/span>
The assault comes a day after at least 30 people died in a bomb attack on a Sunni mosque in the central city of Baquba.<\/span>
The spike in deadly violence in recent months comes amid rising sectarian and ethnic tensions, triggered in April by an army raid on a Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp near Hawija.<\/span>
In recent weeks, Iraqi security forces have reportedly arrested hundreds of alleged al-Qaeda members in and around Baghdad as part of a campaign the Shia-led government is calling “Revenge for the martyrs”.<\/span>
But the operations, which have taken place mostly in Sunni districts, have angered the Sunni community and failed to halt the violence.<\/span>
The country has also seen a spillover of violence from the conflict in Syria, which has taken on increasingly sectarian overtones.<\/span><\/p>\n