Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Who will mourn the mourners?

From the LA Times:
BAGHDAD — Unlike so many deaths in this city these days, the passing of Ahmed Lami was remarkable not for its violent end, but for its lack of bloodshed: He died of natural causes at 65.

But even peaceful death has become a magnet for violence. As his Shiite Muslim family and friends gathered to mourn his passing Tuesday afternoon under a tent in a middle-class, religiously mixed neighborhood on Palestine Street, a suicide bomber walked in, sat down and detonated his explosives, killing at least seven people and injuring 21.

The funeral blast was among several car bombings, shootings and explosions around Iraq on Tuesday that suggested insurgents were finding new ways to evade the ongoing security crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi forces.