Iraq gunman kill 25 in Sunni village attack
Updated on 03 April 2010
Gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed three houses in a Sunni Muslim village in southern Baghdad, killing at least two dozen people.
Some of the victims were said to be former insurgents who turned against al-Qaida. Women and children were among the dead.
At least seven people were left alive after the slaughter, their hands tied behind their backs, Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said.
Moussawi said some of the victims were members of the Iraqi security forces and others of the Sons of Iraq, a group of Sunni former insurgents who joined the Iraqi government and US forces to fight al-Qaida militants and are credited with helping turn the tide of the Iraq war.
Moussawi said authorities had arrested 25 people and sealed off the area to conduct a search for other suspects.
Violence has fallen significantly in the last two years but security officials had warned of a possible rise in attacks due to tensions surrounding Iraq's 7 March parliamentary election, which produced no clear winner and promised weeks of difficult negotiations to form a new government.