Suicide bomber kills four at Iraq funeral-police

(Updates with U.S. statement, details)

BAGHDAD, Dec 25 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed four people at the funeral of a father and son who died hours earlier in a shootout with U.S. forces in the city of Baquba north of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

Police said the father and son had worked as armed volunteers with the U.S. military. U.S. forces said in a statement they had killed two "criminals" in the town and were checking their identities.

The suicide bomber, wearing a vest packed with explosives, also wounded 21 people, police said. All the casualties were members of the U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrols who were burying their comrades.

Baquba is the capital of Diyala province, a restive area north of Baghdad where U.S. commanders say al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants have regrouped after being driven out of other areas in Iraq.

U.S. forces have hired mainly Sunni volunteers to man neighbourhood patrols in the ethnically and religiously mixed area. The units have frequently been targeted by al Qaeda militants and also occasionally clashed with police.

In a separate attack north of Baghdad on Tuesday, a suicide truck bomb killed 20 people and wounded 80 in Baiji, another volatile northern city.

(Baghdad newsroom)