Bomber Hits Baghdad Funeral

A suicide bomber killed 30 and wounded 38 at a Baghdad funeral today, shattering a mostly peaceful New Year's day with the worst bomb attack in months, Reuters reports. The attacker was likely a friend or relative of the mourners who brazenly passed the neighborhood's high military and police presence, authorities said. They pegged him as al-Qaeda from Diyala, a province north of Baghdad where militants have regrouped.

Eastern Baghdad was peaceful last night as revelers danced, banged drums, and set off fireworks—festivities that were unthinkable in the city's violent atmosphere only months ago. Civilian deaths dropped 75% in Iraq in 2007, from 1,930 to 481, Baghdad reports. But one reveler noted that fighting is far from over: "Violence has decreased in my area, but we are still afraid of facing death any minute," he said. (More Iraq stories.)