10 killed in attacks by gunmen in Iraq

At least ten people were killed and six wounded in separate shootings in central and northern Iraq on Tuesday, the police said. Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead Tariq Harrosh, a leader of a government-backed Awakening Council group, in front of his house in Abu Ghraib area, some 250 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. In a separate incident, gunmen in the early morning broke into the house of another leader of the Sunni paramilitary group in the town of al-Siniyah, some 200 km north of Baghdad, and shot dead the leader's father and mother and critically wounded him before they fled the scene, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua. The Awakening Council group, also known as Sons of Iraq movement or Sahwa, consists of mostly anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent militant groups, who fought al-Qaida network after Sahwa's leaders became dismayed by al-Qaida's brutality and religious zealotry in the country. Separately, two people were killed and a third wounded when two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on them in a village near the city of Tuz-Khurmato, some 90 km east of Tikrit city, the capital of Iraq's Salahudin province in north of Baghdad, a provincial police source said. Salahudin province is a Sunni-dominated province. Its capital Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, is the hometown of the former President Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, gunmen in their car opened fire on a convoy of vehicles carrying the mayor of the city of al-Qayyara, some 50 km south of Mosul, the capital city of Nineveh province, while travelling on a main road south of his city, a Nineveh provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The mayor was seriously wounded along with two of his bodyguards, the source said. Nineveh province has long been a stronghold for insurgent groups, including al-Qaida militants. Its capital city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, is one of the country's most restive cities. In Baghdad, gunmen attacked a real estate office in Sabie al- Bour area in northern the capital, killing two people and wounding another, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. In addition, two civilians were shot dead in two attacks by gunmen using silenced weapons in al-Saidiyah district in southern Baghdad, the source said. Violence is still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.