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At least 12 people have been shot dead by gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms in a pre-dawn attack in a village south-west of Baghdad, officials say.Police spokesman Gen Qassim Moussawi said officers suspected the attack in Zauba was the result a tribal dispute.

Among the dead were a senior figure in the Iraqi Islamic Party and members of a local Awakening Council - a Sunni militia co-operating with the state.

The area around Zauba was once a hotbed of the Sunni insurgency in the country.

The violence triggered by the US-led invasion in 2003 has diminished over the past 18 months, but shootings and bombings are common.

A resident of Zauba blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for Monday's attack.


Mohammed al-Zubaie told AFP news agency that the gunmen had shot dead Attala Ouda al-Shukir, an Awakening Council leader, as well as three of his sons and four cousins.