“Iraqi anti-al Qaeda chief’s family slain by gunmen,” from Reuters, April 20 (thanks to Maxwell):
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Gunmen stormed the house of an anti-al Qaeda tribal chief and killed his wife and children, hours after the Iraqi government announced that leaders of the militant group had been killed in a raid, police said Tuesday.
The Sunni militia was not at home when the killings happened. The armed men cut the throats of his three young sons and shot his wife and a daughter in the head, police said.
The killings occurred late on Monday in Tarmiya, a mostly Sunni town 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad that was once a stronghold of al Qaeda before tribal chiefs turned on the group and allied themselves with U.S. forces instead.
A police source said the authorities believed the killings might have been a reaction to the deaths of al Qaeda in Iraq’s top two leaders on Sunday….