Iraq: Gunmen Kill 16 Members of shi'ite Family

Iraq: Gunmen Kill 16 Members Of Shi'ite FamilySix children and eight women are among those killed after gunmen storm two houses near Baghdad and then blow both buildings up.12:53pm UK, Wednesday 04 September 2013 Coffins are prepared by relatives of the victims
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Graph: Civilian Deaths In Iraq Violence
Enlarge EmailGunmen have shot dead 16 members of the same Shi'ite family in Iraq before blowing up their two neighbouring homes.

The attack took place at the homes of two brothers in the town of Latifiya, south of Baghdad, shortly after midnight on Wednesday, according to a doctor at a nearby hospital.

Among the dead were six children and eight women.

Survivor Haneen Mudhhir, speaking from hospital, said: "Gunmen broke into our house overnight and shot my father four times in the head, they killed my two brothers, they killed my cousin.


Some 83 civilians were killed across Iraq on Tuesday alone

"They were shooting everyone they saw, I escaped from the back door."

It was unclear who carried out the attack, but Sunni Islamist militants, including an al Qaeda affiliate, have been carrying out attacks in recent weeks.

Last week, another attack on a Shi'ite Muslim family in the town killed seven people.

The civil war in neighbouring Syria has aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions in Iraq, fraying an uneasy government coalition of Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish factions.


Attacks took place in four towns and cities on Tuesday

In a separate incident, a suicide bomber attacked a police headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, killing five policemen.

A roadside bomb also killed five soldiers carrying out a patrol in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad.

In total, some 83 people were killed on Tuesday alone across the country.

More than 700 Iraqis were killed in August, according to UN figures, with more than a third of the deadly attacks taking place in the capital. More than 4,000 people have died in the last five months.

The bloodshed, 18 months after US troops withdrew from Iraq, has stirred concerns about a return to the sectarian violence of 2006 when the monthly death toll at times topped 3,000.