BAGHDAD - Gunmen wearing Iraqi military uniforms raided homes in a Sunni village south of Baghdad, killing 25 people, including five women, execution-style, officials said Saturday. At least seven people were found alive and bound with handcuffs, according to a statement from Baghdad's security spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi. In the hours after Friday night's shootings, Iraqi officials cordoned off the area to search for suspects and helicopters swarmed overhead. Twenty-five people were arrested, al-Moussawi said. Most of the dead were members of local Sahwa, or Awakening Councils - one of several names for the Sunni fighters who changed the course of the war when they revolted against al-Qaida in Iraq and joined the Americans in late 2006 and 2007, officials said. The fighters also are also known as Sons of Iraq. The victims were handcuffed and shot, said a police official who asked that his name not be published because he is not authorized to speak publicly. Mustafa Kamel, a Sahwa leader south of Baghdad, said the attack happened late Friday in a village in the Arab Jabour area, about 15 miles (25 kilometres) south of Baghdad. Arab Jabour is a collection of industrial zones, villages and palm and citrus groves in the Sunni belt around Baghdad's southern doorstep. An official at Iraq's Interior Ministry confirmed the attack and said the victims were 20 men and five women and that the attackers were in military uniform.
