Attacks across Iraq kill at least 11 people

Gunmen near Iraq’s capital kidnapped and later shot to death six men, the deadliest of a series of attacks on Sunday that killed at least 11 people across the country, authorities said.

The gunmen broke into the homes at dawn Sunday in the town of Latifiyah, a mainly Sunni town 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, a police officer said. Authorities later found the bodies, all with gunshot wounds to the head, in remote, rural farmland near the capital, the officer said. No one immediately claimed the slayings and the motive behind the killing was unclear. Shiite militiamen could be seeking revenge for the ongoing Sunni insurgent attacks against Shiite neighborhoods. Militants with al-Qaida’s local branch targets Sunnis in attacks as well or it also could be a personal vendetta. 

However, the slayings come amid escalating sectarian violence in Iraq, which last year saw its highest death toll since the worst of such killings in 2007, according to the United Nations. In November, 18 Sunnis kidnapped by men in Iraqi army uniforms were found dead, just days after police found the corpses of 13 men all killed by close-range gunshots to the head.

Since late December, Iraq’s minority Sunnis has been protesting what they perceive as discrimination and tough anti-terrorism measures against them by the Shiite-led government. Now some call for Shiites to create armed ``popular committees,’’ attached in some form to the regular security forces.