Gunmen kill 13 Kurds in Iraq village-govt official

BAGHDAD, May 19 (Reuters) - Gunmen dressed as Iraqi security forces killed 13 Shi'ite Kurds in a small village in the volatile Diyala province today, a local government official said.

The men entered the village of Qara Lous near the town of Mandali, about 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Baghdad close to the Iranian border, and began searching through houses.

Thirteen men were taken from their homes and shot, Mohammad Mulla Hassan, mayor of the nearby village of Khanaqin, told Reuters. Relatives of the victims had earlier put the death toll at seven.

Hassan said all of those shot were members of Iraq's two main Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

The U S military has sent an extra 3,000 troops to Diyala, a large, religiously mixed region which has seen some of the worst violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Sectarian killings and attacks by al Qaeda occur regularly in Diyala, a mainly Sunni Arab province which has significant Shi'ite and Kurdish populations.

Most ethnic Kurds in Iraq are Sunni Muslims.

Insurgents have tried to establish a Taliban-style rule by banning smoking, forcing schoolgirls to wear veils and attacking restaurants and Internet cafes.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has pledged to send more Iraqi troops to Diyala in support of the U S deployment.

Tens of thousands of extra U S and Iraqi troops are being deployed in Baghdad and other areas in a bid to stop a slide towards all-out sectarian civil war and to buy time for political reform aimed at promoting national reconciliation.

REUTERS GT KP2234