Gunmen kill 2 anti-Al Qaida fighters, 5 relatives in Iraq

Baghdad: Iraqi authorities say gunmen broke into the home of two anti-Al Qaida militiamen in Baghdad and killed them and their entire household, a total of seven people.

A police officer said the attackers killed a father and a son in the Sahwa movement along with five members of their family, including two women, as they were sleeping in their home in the capital’s southern neighbourhood of Dora early on Saturday.

Health officials confirmed the death toll.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media. The Sahwa joined forces with US troops at the height of the Iraq war to fight Al Qaida. Ever since then, it has been a target for Sunni insurgents, who call its members traitors.