Suicide bomber kills 21 at Iraq dinner banquet

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

BAGHDAD (AFP) — A suicide bomber killed at least 21 people and wounded 32 when he attacked a dinner banquet attended by police and members of an anti-Qaeda Awakening group near Baghdad Sunday, a security official said.

The bomber blew up his explosives-laden vest as police and members of the Sunni Awakening group sat down to dinner in the Abu Ghraib district, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of Baghdad, the interior ministry official said.

Aziz Moklif Ghatha al-Zubai, one of the local chiefs of Awakening group who organised the dinner in the district's Al-Zaidan village, was killed in the attack that took place at around 8:30 pm (1730 GMT).

Witnesses said that police had cordoned off the area as victims were taken to a hospital in Fallujah, 20 kilometres...