Gunmen kill two Shi'ite families in Baghdad massacre
10 Dec 2006 09:11:43 GMT Source: Reuters
(Updates with background) BAGHDAD, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Gunmen stormed into the homes of two Shi'ite families in a predominantly Sunni Arab district of Baghdad on Sunday, killing nine people, police said. Police said about 20 gunmen had killed a father and three sons of one family and five brothers of another. No women were hurt in the attack in the southwestern Jihad district. On Saturday Shi'ite militiamen raided the religiously mixed Hurriya district in western Baghdad, killing two people and forcing dozens of Sunni families to flee, police and witnesses said. In July, militiamen rampaged through Jihad, shooting at least 42 people. Many of the victims were killed after being pulled from their cars at fake police checkpoints. U.S. officials have warned that attacks by al Qaeda militants and reprisals by Shi'ite militias have sparked a vicious cycle of revenge killings that threaten to destroy Iraq. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has joined some commentators in describing the conflict as a civil war. The country has been gripped by rampant violence, which the United Nations estimates kill as many as 120 people a day, since the bombing of an important Shi'ite shrine in February.
