Suicide Blast Kills 32 In Baghdad

Using an explosives packed car, a suicide bomber killed 32 people near a funeral possession in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in Baghdad.

The AP reports that about 65 people were wounded and most of the people killed were police escorting the funeral.

The AP reports:

"Salam Hussein, a 42-year-old grocery store owner in Zafaraniyah said he was watching the funeral procession, which was heavily guarded by police, when the blast blew out his store windows and injured one of his workers.

"'It was a huge explosion,' Hussein said. As he took his worker to the hospital, Hussein said he saw cars engulfed in flames, 'human flesh scattered around and several mutilated bodies in a pool of blood' around where the attacker's car had exploded.

As Al Jazeera reports this attack is part of an escalating sectarian violence since the U.S. pulled out its troops from Iraq. It comes a day after 17 people were killed in mostly Sunni areas across the country.

"Friday's attack brings the death toll from a wave of attacks since the beginning of the year to more than 200," reports Al Jazeera. "The attacks raise concerns that the surge in violence and an escalating political crisis might deteriorate into a civil war."

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