Gunmen in Iraq kill (eight members of) family

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Gunmen shot dead eight members of a family, including a 12-year-old girl and five women, in an overnight raid on their home in Iraq's volatile northern Diyala province, police said.

The attackers abducted two other family members, a man and woman, from the house in the village of Maamil near Balad Ruz, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, Balad Ruz police Lieutenant Abdul Jabbar Raheem told Reuters.

He did not know who was behind the attack or why the family, all Arabs from the Sunni sect living in a largely Shi'ite neighborhood, were targeted a week before provincial elections seen as a key test of Iraq's growing stability.

The attack at 11.30 p.m. Thursday () evoked memories of the tit-for-tat sectarian slaughter that nearly tore Iraq apart in 2006-2007, which has only recently subsided.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090123/wl_nm/us_iraq_violence_2