By Abimbola Ogunnaike
Tragedy occurred in a village in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala,Iraq on Wednesday, 29 March 2023 as unknown gunmen shot dead a policeman, his wife, and his son.
Captain Ahmed al-Zeheiri from Diyala Provincial Police, told a Chinese news agency that the bizarre attack occurred at about 4:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) when armed men broke into the house of the policeman and opened fire on the family members in the village of al-Tahweila near the town of Khalis, some 70 km northeast of Baghdad.
The youngest son of the policeman escaped the attack with wounds, al-Zeheiri added.
The attackers set fire to the house and animal barn before fleeing, he said, adding that the security forces imposed strict security measures in the area and launched an investigation into the incident to identify the gunmen.
Meanwhile, an anonymous security source told Xinhua that the policeman’s house is located in a relatively stable area away from the hotspots in the province that are still suffering from activities of the Islamic State (IS) militants.
Diyala has often witnessed deadly attacks targeting residential areas with various motives from personal and sectarian revenge, to terrorist attacks by the IS group against security forces and civilians.
Source: Xinhua
