Gunmen kill tribal leader, woman official in Iraq

In west of Baghdad, gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed the house of Shiek Ali Dayeh al-Fahdawi, head of Albu-Fahad tribe, in al-Khaldiyah town, some 80 km west of Baghdad, before the dawn, a source from the operations command of Iraq's Anbar province told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attackers dragged Fahdawi and his brother away from his house and shot them dead, the source said.

Insurgent attacks continue in the once volatile Sunni Arab area in west of Baghdad that stretches through Anbar province to Iraq's western borders with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

The province cities and its vast desert area have been relatively calm for more than three years after Sunni tribes and anti-US  insurgent groups turned to cooperate with the US troops and Iraqi security forces against Al-Qaida network in Iraq.

In a separate incident in northern Iraq, unidentified gunmen in a car shot dead Khawla al-Sab'awi, a woman government official, in front of her house in al-Wahda neighbourhood in eastern Mosul, about 400 km north of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Iraq's Nineveh province has long been a stronghold for insurgent groups, including al-Qaida militants. Its capital city of Mosul is one of the country's most restive cities.