SAMARRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead nine members of an Iraqi family after storming their house in the village of Awja, north of Baghdad, on Thursday, police said.
"They attacked the house at 4 a.m. and opened fire," said apoliceman who was at the scene but who declined to be named."They killed the husband, his wife and their seven sons. Wedon't yet know why."
He said the victims were Sunni Arabs but the village, thebirthplace of former ruler Saddam Hussein, had largely beenspared the tit-for-tat sectarian killings that last yearbrought Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war.
Speaking from a hospital in nearby Tikrit, where the bodieswere brought, another policeman said the dead included a sevenyear old boy.
The U.S. military says attacks nationwide have decreased 60percent since June, but operations by U.S. troops andgovernment forces are ongoing in northern Iraq to flush outSunni Arab al Qaeda, blamed for a string of bomb attacks in theregion.
(Reporting by Sabah al-Bazi, writing by Tim Cocks, editingby Elizabeth Piper)
