9 die as gunmen raid Baghdad jewellery stores

AT least nine people were killed as masked gunmen swooped on jewellers in the Iraqi capital in a brazen morning rampage yesterday, bombing five stores after robbing them.

Gunmen robbed the shops along a street in the Bayaa neighbourhood of south-west Baghdad and shot the owners and staff, who accounted for all but two of the deaths.

“More than 10 gunmen in civilian clothes, carrying silencers and machine-guns”, entered Ashreen street, Bayaa’s main thoroughfare, having bypassed strict security controls, an interior ministry official said, on condition of anonymity.