Bombing kills 27 in Iraqi province of Diyala

Baghdad: At least 27 people were killed when a bomber detonated his explosive vest at a funeral for the relative of a militia commander in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala on Monday, security and medical sources said.
The attack in Muqdadiya, 80km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad follows the deadliest bombing inside the capital so far this year, which left 78 people dead on Sunday.
Security officials and police in Diyala said the target of the attack was two local commanders of the Hashid Shaabi umbrella group of militias who were attending the funeral ceremony for one of their relatives.
"The suicide attacker approached the local Hashid commanders and then blew his vest up, killing both with many others," said one police major on condition of anonymity. A further 55 people were wounded, the sources said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but attacks on militias are often claimed by IS militants who control large parts of north and western Iraq.
Iraqi officials declared victory over the insurgents in Diyala a year ago, but IS has remained active. The Badr Organisation has established itself as the ascendant militia in the region after rolling back the insurgents.
Security officials and witnesses say the situation inside Muqdadiya is very tense, with dozens of militia members deployed in the streets with no presence of the security forces.
Meanwhile, the United States warned its citizens to be ready to leave Iraq in the event of what it has said could be a catastrophic collapse of the country's largest hydro-electric dam near Mosul.
Iraqi officials have sought to play down the risk but Washington urged its citizens to make contingency plans now.
A US security message cited estimates that Mosul, which is northern Iraq's largest city and under control of IS insurgents, could be inundated by as much as 70 feet (21 meters) of water within hours of the breach.
Cities downstream on the Tigris River such as Tikrit, Samarra and the Iraqi capital Baghdad could be inundated with smaller, but still significant levels within 24-72 hours.
"We have no specific information that indicates when a breach might occur, but out of an abundance of caution, we would like to underscore that prompt evacuation offers the most effective tool to save lives of the hundreds of thousands of people," the security message said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said on Sunday precautions were being taken, but described the likelihood of such a scenario as "extremely small".
IS seized the dam in August 2014, raising fears they might blow it up and unleash a wall of water on Mosul and Baghdad that could kill hundreds of thousands.
The dam was recaptured two weeks later by Iraqi government forces backed by air strikes from a US-led coalition, but the disruption of maintenance operations has increased the likelihood of a breach.
An Italian company has been awarded a contract to make urgent repairs to the dam, which has suffered from structural flaws since its construction in the 1980s and requires constant grouting to maintain structural integrity.
Iraq's minister of water resources said earlier this month there was only a "one in a thousand" chance the dam would collapse, and that the solution was to build a new dam or install a deep concrete support wall.