At least 15 people were killed and eight others injured in a suicide bombing in northern Iraq on Monday, a police source said.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd at a funeral at the village of al-Hijaj, some 20 km north of Tikrit, Col. Hassan Ahmed of the Tikrit police station told Xinhua. Ahmed Abdulla, deputy governor of the Salahhdin province, was present at the funeral for one of his relatives. Abdulla, who is in charge of security affairs, was not injured in the blast.

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2008)