Gunmen massacre Shi'ite family in Iraq village

BAQUBA, Iraq, Nov 25 (Reuters) Iraqi police found the bodies of 21 men and boys from an extended Shi'ite family today hours after they were abducted from a mainly Sunni Arab village northeast of Baghdad, security sources said.

The victims in Shamafiya, a village just outside the town of Balad Ruz, 70 km northeast of the capital in violent Diyala province, ranged in age from 12 upward.

Residents and a security source said the apparently sectarian attack involved gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms who took the al-Saadi family late yesterday before killing them and dumping their bodies nearby. The bodies were found blindfolded, each corpse with gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

The attack on the family may have had a sectarian motive as the religiously-mixed province of Diyala is rife with sectarian killings between Shi'ites and Sunnis. But sometimes tribal feuds and gangsters driven by profit also account for some violence.

REUTERS PDM RK1931