Suicide bombing at Iraq funeral kills 26 Iraqi women and children gather outside of a Sunni mosque after a suicide bomber struck during Friday prayers in the village of Umm al-Adham in Diyala province. A boy inspects the site of a double bomb attack on a Shiite mosque in Kasra neighborhood in northern Baghdad, Iraq, amid a nationwide surge in violence. A SUICIDE bomber has killed 26 people at the funeral for a member of a tiny Iraqi minority group, the latest in a months-long wave of bloodshed plaguing the country. The attack on Saturday was one of several to strike predominantly Sunni Arab northern Iraq, beset by growing instability in recent months as anti-government protests combined with spillover from neighbouring Syria's years-long civil war to give militant groups increased room to manoeuvre. The bomber attacked in the town of Baashiqah, just outside the main northern city of Mosul, killing 26 people and wounding 46, according to Sheeth Abed, a doctor at the city's hospital. He targeted the funeral for a member of the Shabak minority who had died of natural causes, officials said. The 30,000-strong Shabak community mostly lives near the Turkish border. They speak a distinct language and largely follow a faith that is a blend of Shi'ite Islam and local beliefs, and are frequently targeted in attacks by Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda. Also on Saturday, two other attacks in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, left a policeman dead and three others wounded. An explosion in Dujail, which also lies north of Baghdad, killed two others. The attacks come amid a surge in nationwide violence that has left more than 4000 people dead so far this year and sparked concerns Iraq is slipping back into the all-out sectarian war that plagued it in 2006 and 2007. Authorities have sought to combat the bloodshed, at its worth level since 2008, with a range of anti-militant operations and tight traffic rules in the capital, but Iraq has continued to suffer deadly attacks.