Gunmen kill 29 Iraqi villagers - security official

BAGHDAD, July 17 (Reuters) Twenty nine villagers were killed by men wearing Iraqi military uniforms who stormed their homes north of Baghdad, an Iraqi security official said today.

Colonel Raghib Rawi, spokesman for security operations in Diyala province, said a large number of gunmen surrounded Duwailiya village, north of the city of Baquba, yesterday afternoon and then opened fire.

There were four people wounded in the attack, which he blamed on militants fleeing US and Iraqi security forces who last month launched a major operation in Baquba, the capital of the religiously mixed Diyala province.

Thousands of troops swept into Baquba to drive out an estimated several hundred al Qaeda militants who had turned the city into a stronghold. But U.S. commanders say that many of the most senior al Qaeda fighters departed before their net closed.

REUTERS RJ PM1357