Gunmen killed eight members of a Sunni family, including six women, and kidnapped two others in a tense area northeast of Baghdad where Shiite militiamen still operate, officials said.
The ambush was a grisly example of the dangers still facing Iraqis as the new US administration prepares to withdraw its troops.
The gunmen stormed the al-Karawi family’s home late on Thursday and shot the eight victims to death in their sleep, said Brigadier General Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, the head of the security headquarters for Diyala Province.
PHOTO: AP
He initially said on Friday that the dead included two women but later said there were six women, including one who was only 16 years old. The family was poor and had moved to the Maamil village a year ago to work at brick factories in the area, he said.
The US military said four men, four women and one child died.
Conflicting casualty tolls are common in Iraq where access is limited because of security concerns.
Al-Rubaie declined to speculate on the reason for the attack, saying it was still under investigation.
But Iraqi police officials contacted in the nearby town of Balad Ruz and the provincial capital of Baqubah gave conflicting motives.
One said it was a family dispute while another blamed it on Shiite extremists he said still wielded influence in the area.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to discuss motives with the media since the case was under investigation.
Such attacks were common during brutal sectarian warfare that peaked in 2006 and 2007 but ebbed after a Shiite militia ceasefire order, a Sunni revolt against al-Qaeda in Iraq and a US troop buildup.
Elsewhere, a bomb hidden inside a traffic police booth exploded on Friday in western Baghdad, killing a seven-year-old boy and wounding his mother, police and hospital officials said.
US commanders have warned the security gains are fragile and said a premature withdrawal of US forces could jeopardize the progress made.
US President Barack Obama, who campaigned on a promise to end the war, has asked the Pentagon to plan for “a responsible military drawdown from Iraq.”
At least 4,230 members of the US military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, an Associated Press count shows. The latest was an American soldier who died in a vehicle accident on Thursday, the military said.
US and Iraqi officials are hoping provincial elections will more equitably redistribute power on a local basis and stem support for violence.
But ethnic and sectarian tensions have been rising ahead of Saturday’s vote, which is widely seen as a dress rehearsal for national parliamentary elections later this year.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged voters to go to the polls in large numbers, saying he hoped for a turnout of at least 70 percent.
“The elections are a national and religious obligation,” he said on Friday during an address to members of his tribe in Baghdad.
“The important thing is to vote and to participate in large numbers. We want to be proud and say that the turnout was 70 percent or 80 percent,” he said. “This large turnout would send a message to those who claim there is a gap between people and the government and between people and the political process.”
The prime minister is not running in the elections for local councils but has thrown his support behind an umbrella group that includes his party and is known as the Coalition of the State of Law.
Al-Maliki acknowledged complaints about the lack of public services, which have sparked heavy criticism of current members of provincial councils as well as his government.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including