Suicide Bombing During Mosul Funeral Kills 26

Mosul suicide bombing kills 26 (CNN-AP)

A suicide bombing at a funeral procession in Mosul killed 26 people Thursday, officials said. The explosion, which wounded 27, occurred in al-Ta’meen district, in an open space near the Shahedayein Mosque, in central Mosul. “As we were inside the mosque, we saw a ball of fire and heard a huge explosion,” Tahir Abdullah Sultan, 45, told The Associated Press. “After that blood and pieces of flesh were scattered around the place.”

The funeral was for Hashim Mahmoud al-Aaraji, a professor at a Mosul University.

An especially brutal attack although, frankly, I’ve often wondered why funerals weren’t targetted more often. It occured to me, for example, that the funeral of a Hamas leader would be a great target, in that it would take out a huge chunk of the leadership.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.