Baghdad, March 10 (Reuters): A suicide bomber struck a Shia mosque during a funeral in the northern city of Mosul today, killing as many as 30 people and wounding dozens in a fresh attack against the country?s newly-empowered majority.

A police official in Baghdad said 30 people were killed in the attack in eastern Mosul, a city that has become a focus for US efforts to defeat Iraq?s insurgency.

Hospital officials there said at least 17 bodies had been taken to the morgue and at least 40 people were wounded.

Mainly Sunni insurgents have staged increasingly audacious attacks on Shia and official targets in their relentless campaign to topple a US backed government and stall efforts by the Shia majority to form a new cabinet.

Mosul, Iraq?s third largest city, with a mixed population of mostly Sunni and Kurds, has seen a surge in violence since last November when coordinated guerrilla attacks on police forced them to desert.

Dozens of people with serious injuries were taken to hospital after today?s bombing, witnesses said.

Tensions have risen in Iraq?s north between the three main groups that populate the area, the Shias, the Kurds and the Sunnis.

The Kurds, who want to extend an autonomous region in the north, dominate the region and have encouraged those who fled under Saddam Hussein to return home.

In Kirkuk, newly returned Kurds trying to reclaim land clashed with Iraqi police. Two National Guards were wounded, police said.

In the capital, insurgents targeted police. Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed Obeis, travelling to work at Salhiya police station in central Baghdad, was shot dead along with two other policemen while one guerrilla filmed the attack.

?On March 10 an al Qaida team set up a checkpoint in the Ilam district and lay in wait for an officer in the interior ministry intelligence branch who used to investigate and harm mujahideen,? the al Qaida in Iraq said in an Internet statement.

?When he pulled out his identity papers the mujahideen riddled him with bullets, killing him.?

In southeastern Baghdad, another policeman, Iyad Abed, was shot dead by gunmen on his way to work.

In the town of Rutba on the highway to Jordan in western Iraq, the bodies of four Iraqi soldiers were found, hospital sources said.

Guerrillas target those working for the interim government, US forces or building companies helping to rebuild Iraq.