BAGHDAD, 2 January 2007 — A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people at a Baghdad funeral yesterday, denting hopes of more peaceful 2008 which had seen New Year’s Eve street parties in the Iraqi capital for the first time since the 2003 invasion.
Another 38 people were wounded when the bomber detonated his charge in the midst of the crowd of mourners in the eastern Zayuna neighborhood in the late afternoon, an interior ministry official said. It was a deadly reminder of the dangers still facing Iraq in the new year despite reduced bloodshed in the second half of 2007.
Violent deaths among Iraqis fell to a 22-month low in December, figures obtained from the defense, Interior and Health Ministries showed. The 568 deaths — 480 civilians, 24 soldiers and 64 police — showed a continuing fall from the previous month’s figures — 606 in November, 887 in October and 840 in September.
Mirroring the fall in Iraqi deaths, combat losses among US troops also dropped to a 22-month low of 21 in December, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures. However, 2007 remained the deadliest since the 2003 invasion with at least 896 soldiers killed.
Taking advantage of the improved security situation, Iraqis poured into the streets of Baghdad in their thousands on Monday night to see in the New Year, unloading weapons into the night sky, playing drums and dancing.
Crowds gathered from early evening in the central Karrada neighborhood of the capital for what many said was the first time they had celebrated the New Year in public since the US-led invasion.
Long traffic jams formed as drivers tooted their horns and passengers yelled from car windows and the backs of pickups while crowds, mainly of young men but also some families, crowded the streets. At midnight, 2008 was ushered in with the staccato of celebratory gunfire, which echoed for more than half an hour across the capital.
