Gunmen storm Sunni enclave in Baghdad, kill 24

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed a Sunni Muslim village near Baghdad and killed 24 people, some of them former insurgents who turned against al Qaeda, Iraqi authorities said on Saturday.

The attackers may have been pretending to be U.S. soldiers because they wore U.S.-style uniforms, sunglasses, and spoke some English, according to an Iraqi military source at the scene.

The attack occurred on Friday in a Sunni enclave called Albusaifi in the southern part of Baghdad province, a former stronghold of al Qaeda militants. A police source said the gunmen handcuffed the victims and shot them in the head.

At least seven people were left alive, their hands tied behind their backs, Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said.

"The terrorist group drove cars and killed 24 people, including five women," Moussawi said.

Iraqi authorities had warned of a possible escalation of violence due to rising tensions surrounding a March 7 parliamentary election that produced no clear winner.

Iraqi and U.S. troops sealed off the area. Moussawi said 25 people were arrested and security forces were searching for more.

SONS OF IRAQ

Moussawi said some of the victims were members of the Iraqi security forces and others of the Sahwa movement, or the "Sons of Iraq." The group comprises Sunni former insurgents who joined the Iraqi government and U.S. forces to fight al Qaeda militants and are credited with helping turn the tide of the Iraq war.

"This is al Qaeda's doing," said a Sahwa leader who asked not to be named.

Another Sahwa official in southern Baghdad said the area was once an al Qaeda stronghold freed from "terrorists" by the Sons of Iraq.

"The security situation is getting worse in the country because of the struggle for power," he said. "If they (al Qaeda) succeed in destabilising this area and other areas, there will be a security vacuum which will result in a chaos."

The attack was the largest of its kind in Baghdad in recent months, although the capital has been the target of large-scale bombings. Violence has fallen sharply in Iraq in the last two years following the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07, but assassinations, bombings and mortar attacks still occur daily.

A source in the Iraqi security forces' intelligence service said 10 to 15 gunmen in pickup trucks were involved in the attack. He said Sons of Iraq members were targeted because they were loyal to the government.

"We have intelligence information that says al Qaeda is trying to re-organise itself," he said.

"In the past these areas were the stronghold of al Qaeda. There are still sleeper cells in these areas that seize the chance from time to time to execute attacks and regain control of the areas again."

The victims were members of three different families and included women and children, another source said.

The attackers looked like U.S. soldiers and spoke in English, using a translator to communicate with locals, the Iraqi military source said, but the villagers did not believe they were Americans.

Nearly four weeks after the election, political coalitions are negotiating alliances that could give them the majority in Iraq's 325-seat parliament needed to form a government.

Iyad Allawi, whose cross-sectarian Iraqiya alliance narrowly edged Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law for a plurality of seats, has warned of possible violence if majority-Shi'ite coalitions unite in a bid to exclude his bloc. Iraqiya won strong support from Sunnis in Baghdad and Sunni-dominated provinces in the north and west.

(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim and Muhanad Mohammed; Writing by Jim Loney; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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