Iraqi women killed in gun attack on home

Gunmen stormed a house in a northern, ethnically mixed city in Iraq, killing three women who lived there, police said today.

Gunmen stormed a house in a northern, ethnically diverse city in Iraq, killing three women who lived there, police said today.

Police Colonel Sherzad Mofaly said it was not clear why the women were targeted in the attack in Kirkuk late last night.

The women were Shiites from southern Iraq who recently moved to the city, which is 180 miles (290km) north of the capital, Baghdad.

Col Mofaly said two were sisters, one a teacher and the other a lawyer. The third woman was a relative.

Ethnic tensions have long simmered among Arabs, both Shiites and Sunnis, and Kurds in Kirkuk.

Elsewhere, three policemen and two bystanders were injured by a roadside bomb in Baghdad today.

The device was planted near a security checkpoint outside Iraq’s Finance Ministry.