Suicide bomb blast kills 23 at funeral in Iraq

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BAGHDAD, Mar 24 (AP): A suicide bomber struck a tent filled Monday with Kurdish funeral mourners, unleashing a huge fireball that killed at least 23 people in a northern town where Kurds and Arabs are competing for power. Also Monday, Turkey's visiting president pressed the Iraqi government to crack down on Kurdish rebels who stage cross-border raids into Turkish territory from sanctuaries in northern Iraq.
The provincial security office said 23 people were killed and 34 wounded in the suicide attack in the town of Jalula some 120 kilometres northeast of Baghdad.
A series of high-profile bombings this month has raised concern that insurgents may be regrouping as the US begins to scale down combat operations and hand over security responsibility to the Iraqis ahead of a planned American troop withdrawal by the end of 2011.