The Shiite Muslim family members were among at least
26 people killed in scattered attacks around the country as violence
edged up ahead of
Neighbors found six children and their parents dead
in their home in the rural town of Wehda, near Medayeen, which
witnessed some of the first of the sectarian violence back in 2005.
Police attributed the killings to a tribal dispute over money. However, a spokesman for the political faction led by
alliance, suggesting the attack might have been politically motivated.
A statement from the security forces said some of the victims were beheaded, a hallmark of the Sunni extremist al-Qaida in
A family of four also was shot to death in their home in the western
district of Hurriyeh, another area that once witnessed heavy sectarian
bloodshed. But police attributed that killings to a robbery, and said
the family’s car was stolen.
Elsewhere, a suicide bomber killed five people in an attack on a government building in
A university professor, a businessman, a street cleaner, four policemen and two soldiers died in separate shootings in
There was no immediate suggestion that any of those
killings was related to the coming election. But the level of violence
has been escalating as the as the polls approach.
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
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