Iraq gunmen target minority group

22/04/2007| IslamWeb

Unidentified gunmen have killed 23 people in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said.

All the victims were said to be members of the Yazidi religious minority which follows a pre-Islamic religion and worships an angel figure.

Police said the victims had been dragged from a bus and shot dead. Followers of other faiths were reportedly left unharmed by the gunmen.

Earlier, two car bombs killed at least 12 people at a Baghdad police station.

Most of the victims in the capital's mainly Shia al-Bayaa area were civilians, police said. About 90 people were injured.

Police say the Yazidis were workers at a textile factory in Mosul. Their bus was ambushed as they were traveling home to the nearby town of Bashika.

Police said the gunmen ordered followers of other faiths to leave the bus, before killing the Yazidi members in a field by the road.

Three Yazidi members were seriously wounded but survived the attack, police and hospital officials said.

No group has so far claimed the responsibility for the shootings, but reports say the Yazidi community has recently faced threats from Sunni Muslim extremists in the Mosul area.

The Yazidis are mostly ethnic Kurds.

Photo caption

Iraq's map