Sixteen Shia Family Members Killed In Iraq

Armed men in Iraq have shot dead 16
members of the same Shia family before
blowing up their two neighbouring homes
south of the capital Baghdad, police and
medics said. The overnight attack took place in the town of
Latifiya, 40km south of Baghdad, officials said
on Wednesday. The dead included six children and eight
women. “Gunmen broke into our house overnight and
shot my father four times in the head, they
killed my two brothers, they killed my cousin,
they were shooting everyone they saw, I
escaped from the back door,” Haneen Mudhhir
said. The killings came hours after at least 60
people were killed in a series of car bomb
explosions in Baghdad. The largest death toll was from a car bomb
explosion in a busy street in the al-Talibiya
district of northern Baghdad. No one, nor any group, claimed responsibility
for the attacks. Violence in Iraq has intensified since April to
levels not seen since 2008. More than 4,000 people have been killed over
the past five months alone, including more
than 800 in August, according to figures
provided by UN officials based in Iraq. The bloodshed, 18 months after the
withdrawal of US troops, has stirred concerns
about a return to the sectarian slaughter of
2006-07, when the monthly death toll
sometimes topped 3,000.