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Children of Sunni militia chief beheaded in Iraq

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]

On April 3, gunmen in army uniforms massacred 25 people from families linked to Al-Sahwa in a nighttime raid on a village south of Baghdad. The victims were tied up, tortured and shot in the head or the chest, a hospital source said.

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.

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