Funeral held for 14 bomb experts and officers

Baghdad: Iraqi police held funerals on Wednesday for 11 bomb experts and three officers killed the night before as they responded to a rocket attack being launched from a predominantly Shiite neighbourhood against US bases in the capital.

The officers died in a booby trap blast after they discovered the rockets primed for firing in the back of a truck behind a deserted ice factory in the predominantly Shiite area of Obeidi in eastern Baghdad.

No one has claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. A band played yesterday as four pickup trucks carried the coffins of the slain policemen in a funeral procession.