Eight killed in Iraq attacks

BAGHDAD - Eight people - including a pregnant woman, her husband and two children - were killed and seven were injured in two attacks west of Baghdad, a police source said Friday.

Unidentified gunmen killed the four-member family when they broke into their house, near the Abu Ghreib area, early Friday. Gunmen killed the father, the pregnant mother and their two children, the source told DPA.

Two rockets that fell on houses near the same area had left four people dead and seven injured, he added.

Meanwhile, the chief of the Awakening Councils tribal security force in Diyala province, Hossam al-Majmaai, survived an attack in which an explosive device went off targeting his vehicle.

Explosives experts defused another bomb that was on the same road, south-west of Diyala’s capital, Baquba, a media spokesman in the council said.

This is the fifth assassination attempt on al-Majmaai since the Diyala councils were established in 2009.

The Awakening Councils, or Sahwa, are Sunni fighters who supported the government in its fight against Al Qaeda and helped restore order in the country.