Gunmen have stormed a house in Saddam Hussein's native village in Iraq and shot dead nine members of his clan, some women and children, police say. The former Iraq leader, hanged for crimes against humanity a year ago, is buried in Awja village, about 180km (110 miles) north of Baghdad. The past two years witnessed hundreds of tit-for-tat sectarian killings, but they have decreased since last June. The security improvement has followed operations by US and Iraqi forces.
A police official said the parents and a number of their children were killed, the only survivor being an eight-year-old child. A neighbour said the family were from the former leader's Bijat clan, which once dominated the government, but they had no political ties. "He was a simple businessman," the neighbour added about the slain father.
The bodies were taken to a hospital in nearby Tikrit, where police said the victims had included a seven-year-old boy.