Gunmen kill 15 in Baghdad gold shops raid

BAGHDAD // Masked gunmen attacked gold shops in Baghdad today, killing 15 people before they fled with a large quantity of gold, police and hospital officials said. The gunmen came to the southwestern neighbourhood of Baiyaa in five cars shortly before noon, with their faces covered. They set off a roadside bomb near the shops, killing four bystanders and wounding three, city police officials said.

Then they opened fire on 12 shops, killing nine gold shop owners or their workers and two bystanders. They threw percussion grenades into the shop as a distraction, then fled, police said. A hospital official confirmed the number of casualties. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media. As Iraq's sectarian violence has ebbed, a new threat from violent crime has cropped up. Today's attack was one of the deadliest in the upswing.

Many of those involved in the crime wave are believed to be battle-experienced former insurgents unable to find legitimate work. They often bring the same brutality to their crimes that they showed in the fighting that nearly pushed the country to the brink of Sunni-Shiite civil war in 2006 and 2007. The result has been a wave of thefts and armed robberies, hitting homes, cars, jewellery stores, currency exchanges, pawn shops and banks.

* AP