BAGHDAD: Gunmen singled out seven Shiites and shot them in Iraq’s north while they were out swimming in a targeted sectarian attack, officials said.
Shalal Abdoul, mayor of the town of Tuz Khormato, said the attack happened outside the nearby Turkoman village of Amerili. The attackers arrived on motorcycles and executed the men after separating them from Sunni Arabs, whom they allowed to go free, he said.
“The terrorists want to ignite sectarian strife in our area. Today’s attack carries a sectarian message,” Abdoul said.
Tuz Khormato is about 210 km north of Baghdad. Tuz Khormato police Capt. Mazin Abdullah confirmed the attack.
Violence has ebbed in Iraq since its height between 2005 and 2008, but lethal attacks continue to occur almost daily. Attacks against Iraqi Shiites are often blamed on Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi branch, which has declared its intention to take back areas from which the US and its local allies expelled the militants.
Most Iraqi Shiites are Arabs. Turkomen are one of the country’s minority ethnic groups, and they include both Sunnis and Shiites.
Also Saturday, Iraq’s prime minister urged northern neighbor Turkey to deal with his country through the central government in Baghdad, criticizing Ankara’s direct outreach to Iraq’s self-ruling Kurdish region.
Gunmen kill 7 in Iraq attack
