Gunmen kill Iraqi Shiites fleeing home after threats

Team Infidel

Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 26 August 2006

BAQUBA, Iraq, Aug 26, 2006 (AFP) - Gunmen killed four members of a Shiite
family, including two children and a woman, who were fleeing their home in
the Iraqi city of Baquba Saturday after receiving threats, police said.

At least 11 other people were wounded when gunmen sprayed bullets on the
family as they carried their belongings to a car in the Tahrir neighbourhood
of Baquba, north of Baghdad.

The wounded included five women and a girl.

One of the survivors said the attack was carried out because the victims
were Shiites, suggesting that the gunmen were Sunni extremists.

"When we assembled our baggage, our neighbours came to see us off, and
suddenly the attack came on us. We do not know why but we are Shiites," he
said.

In an attack east of Baquba, insurgents bombed a house in Al-Sadiyah town,
killing the owner and his son, police said. The man's wife and another son
were wounded.

Baquba is one of the most violent cities in Iraq with daily shootings of
people in the ongoing Shiite-Sunni sectarian conflict.