(Updates toll, adds details, changes dateline) FALLUJA, Iraq, May 24 (Reuters) - A suicide car bomb targeting mourners at a funeral killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 30 others in Falluja, west of the Iraqi capital, on Thursday, hospital and police officials said. The bomber was targeting a large crowd in a funeral procession for a man who was killed earlier on Thursday, police officer Jamal Anfous told Reuters. The man whose funeral mourners were attending was identified as Allawi al-Isawi, a local contractor who was part of a Sunni Arab initiative working against al Qaeda militants in Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. Falluja is in restive Anbar province, a stronghold of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency and of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. The U.S. military has a force of more than 6,000 troops in Anbar, and their commander in the region estimated last week that al Qaeda accounts for about 75 percent of militants in and around predominantly Sunni Falluja. Al Qaeda has been waging a campaign against tribal leaders and politicians who cooperate with authorities in Anbar. Some tribal leaders have formed an alliance with U.S. and Iraqi government forces to combat al Qaeda.
