Suicide car bomb kills 31 in Baghdad A suicide bomber detonated a car full of explosives amid a funeral procession on Friday morning, killing at least 31 people and injuring at least 60, a security official said. Mourners had gathered outside a hospital to receive the bodies of three people killed the night before, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The blast occurred in the Shia neighbourhood of Zafaraniyah, in the southeastern part of the city. Violence has increased in Iraq during the past six weeks, as the country has been gripped by a political crisis in the wake of the withdrawal of US troops. Insurgents often have targeted Shia neighbourhoods and Shia pilgrims on religious marches. In a recent internet audio posting, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq said it would direct attacks against Iraq's Shia community and the country's Shia-led government, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a monitoring service. Officials say they are concerned that the insurgents are trying to provoke Shia militias to counterattack, stirring up a sectarian war. Sunni targets have also been hit in the western part of the country, although it is not clear whether or how the attacks are related to the strikes against Shias. The bombing on Friday killed people already reeling from violence in the neighbourhood the night before. According to the security official, gunmen had stormed into an estate agent's office and killed three people. Their bodies were being taken from the hospital for burial when the car bomb detonated on Friday. Salam Hussein, a 42-year-old grocery store owner in Zafaraniyah, told the Associated Press he was watching the funeral procession when the blast blew out his store windows. He said several police cars had been guarding the procession. "It was a huge explosion," Mr Hussein said. As he took one of his workers to the hospital, Mr Hussein added, he saw cars engulfed in flames. Mr Hussein said he saw "human flesh scattered around and several mutilated bodies in a pool of blood" around where the attacker's car had exploded.