Gunmen kill 16 family members in Iraq

Armed men in Iraq shot dead 16 members of the same family Tuesday night before blowing up their two neighboring homes south of Baghdad, police and medics said. The attacks are the latest in a series of deadly incidents that has many Iraqis fearing a return to sectarian violence.

The overnight attack took place in the town of Latifiya, about 25 miles south of the capital, officials said Wednesday. The dead included six children and eight women.

"Gunmen broke into our house overnight and shot my father four times in the head, they killed my two brothers, they killed my cousin, they were shooting everyone they saw. I escaped from the back door," said Haneen Mudhhir, a survivor of the attack.

The killings came hours after at least 60 people were killed in a series of car bomb explosions in Baghdad. The largest death toll was from an explosion in a busy street in the al-Talibiya district of northern Baghdad.

No one, nor any group, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Violence in Iraq has intensified since April to levels not seen since 2008. More than 4,000 people have been killed over the past five months alone, including more than 800 in August, according to figures provided by United Nations officials based in Iraq.

The bloodshed, 18 months after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, has stirred concerns about a return to the sectarian violence of 2006-07, when the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000.

Wire services