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TARMIYAH, Iraq (AFP/Reuters) – Five family members of a local chief of an anti-Qaeda militia were gunned down in their homes in Tarmiyah, north of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, with the children also beheaded, police said.
“The wife, a daughter of 22 and three boys of between 12 and 16 were shot dead, with the assassins also beheading the last three,” said Colonel Tawfiq al-Janaabi, police chief of Tarmiyah, 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Baghdad.
He said the local chief of the Al-Sahwa militia (Awakening Council), identified as Abu Ali, was on duty at a checkpoint at the time of the attack.
Sunni Muslim Awakening Councils are fighting
al-Qaeda in several Iraqi provinces [EPA]
The Sahwa, made up of Sunni Arab tribes, switched allegiances to join American and Iraqi forces in fighting insurgents in 2006 and 2007, leading to a dramatic fall in violence.
Iraq anti Al-Qaeda militias fearful as U.S. troops quit towns
REVENGE KILLING FOR DEATHS OF AL-QAEDA LEADERS?
BAGHDAD, Iraq (MSNBC) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the killings of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri at a news conference and showed photographs of their bloody corpses. U.S. military officials later confirmed the deaths, which Vice President Joe Biden called a “potentially devastating blow” to al-Qaida in Iraq.
“The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaida in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency,” Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said in a statement.
Al-Qaida in Iraq has remained a dangerous force as the U.S. prepares to withdraw most of its troops.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."