A bomber has blown himself up at a funeral in Baghdad, killing seven mourners and injuring about 20 other people, Iraqi police have said.

The blast happened in a mainly Shia area of the Iraqi capital.

At least 14 other people died in violence in and around Baghdad, including six killed when a chemical tanker was blown up north of the city.

The attacks came as the US military said another five US soldiers had been killed by fighters in the past day.

Correspondents say militants are showing increasing defiance to a major security operation launched by US forces and their Iraqi government allies.

Three US soldiers died in a roadside bomb in south-west Baghdad and two more in a suicide car bombing targeting a newly set up combat outpost 50km (30 miles) north of Baghdad, the US military said on Tuesday.

The Tarmiya outpost, established under the new security plan, was badly damaged when it was hit by an explosives-laden vehicle.

The head-on attack was described as unusual, both for tactics and target.

Insurgents mainly stay away from direct assaults on well-armed US military compounds.

US forces have set up cordons throughout Tarmiya and launched searches for insurgent hideouts.

Iraqi Defense Ministry officials said the attack bore the hallmarks of an operation by al-Qaeda in Iraq

In all, 19 soldiers were also injured in the two attacks on US forces on Monday.

Poisonous fumes

In Tuesday's suicide bombing, the attacker detonated a belt packed with explosives as he entered a tent set up to welcome mourners at the funeral in eastern Baghdad, police said.

The funeral was probably targeted because it had attracted a crowd, officials added.

Six people are now known to have died in the tanker blast in Taji some 20km (12 miles) north of Baghdad.

The explosion set off toxic fumes that left 148 people, many of them children, needing hospital treatment for vomiting and breathing problems.

In Baghdad itself, a car rigged with explosives blew up in a street in Sadiya - a mixed Sunni-Shia Muslim area in the south-west - killing at least three people and injuring 12, police said.

Then a suicide car bomber drove into a vegetable market in the southern Shia enclave of Dora, killing at least five people and injuring 19, police said.

Photo caption

Smoke rises over Baghdad after a bombing (file photo)