BAGHDAD, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed Saturday by unknown gunmen at a village in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, a provincial police source said.
The incident took place in early morning when the gunmen broke into a house at a village near the oil refinery town of Baiji, some 200 km north of Iraqi capital Baghdad, and shot dead two brothers and dragged three of their young nephews outside the house and shot them dead, Colonel Mohammed Khalil al-Bazi told Xinhua.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, is responsible for such deadly attacks against civilians.
The key cities of Salahudin province, including Tikrit, which located some 170 km north of Baghdad, were captured by IS militants in June 2014, but the Iraqi security forces have freed the province during major anti-IS offensives.
On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.
However, small IS groups and individuals regrouped in desert and rugged areas and are carrying out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite operations from time to time to hunt them down.