2 girls killed in house bombing in Iraq

The incident took place at dawn in the village of Albu Jili near the town of Yathrib, some 90 km north of Baghdad, when gunmen planted bombs in the house of Ali Hussien Ghaieb, deputy leader of the town's Awakening Council group, also named Sons of Iraq group, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The blasts destroyed parts of the house, killing Ghaieb's two daughters and wounding his little boy, while Ghaieb himself escaped unhurt as he was not at home during the attack, the source said.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the scene and launched an investigation which initially indicated that the attackers planted high explosives in the outer walls of the house and blew them up by remote control, the source added, citing police reports.

The Awakening Council group consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups, who turned their rifles against the al-Qaida network after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

Waves of violence and sporadic attacks continue in the Iraqi cities more than two months after the country held its landmark parliamentary election which is widely expected to shape the political landscape of the war-torn country, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com