UN says 659 Iraqis killed in November

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral procession in a northern Iraq town on Sunday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 25, police said.
   
The attack took place in Muqdadya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, among a crowd of mourners in a cemetery. They had been escorting the body of a prominent pro-government Sunni Muslim tribal sheikh.
   
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but insurgents linked to al Qaeda have frequently targeted local Sunni leaders and their followers considered supportive of Iraq's Shi'ite-led government.
  
Iraq is suffering from its worst wave of violence in at least five years. Insurgents have increased bomb attacks and shootings against civilians and security forces.
   
The government says the civil war in neighboring Syria is stirring violence in Iraq. It says groups mainly linked to the Iraqi wing of al Qaeda are trying to intensify conflict.
   
On Friday police discovered the bodies of 18 men, including a Sunni tribal sheikh and his son, who had been abducted and shot in the head near Baghdad in an attack a senior security official said bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

UN:

The United Nations mission to Iraq said that at least 659 Iraqis have been killed during violence in November, a drop by almost a third compared to the group's figures for last month.

The U.N. figures issued Sunday showed that 565 civilians and 94 security personnel were killed in November, compared to 979 reported killed in October. The UNAMI statement said it may undercount the actual total.   

Yet, U.N. mission chief Nickolay Mladenov expressed concern over the recent uptick in "execution-style" killings.    

Last week, Iraqi police found a total of 31 bodies in three separate places around Baghdad, recalling the height of sectarian violence in 2006-2007 when insurgents and militias abducted and killed members of other religious groups.

 
REUTERS/AP