Gunmen kill, burn three family members in Baiji: Official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A father and his two sons were killed by suspected gunmen in their house in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji on Wednesday, an official said, and their bodies were subsequently set on fire. 

“A number of gunmen attacked a house and shot dead a father and two of his sons today at 10 am, in the Asri neighborhood in Baiji district of southern Salahaddin province,” Kawa Sheikhani, security advisor to Salahaddin’s governor, told Rudaw. 

“The gunmen burned the bodies of all three victims after killing them,” he said. “[T]heir bodies were tortured and one of them was killed with his hands tied."

The assailants quickly fled the crime scene and a manhunt is underway, a Salahaddin police source told Rudaw, adding that all security checkpoints have been notified.

Baiji is a town of about 200,000 people located in northern Salahaddin province, roughly 210 kilometers north of Baghdad. It fell to Islamic State (ISIS) militants during their brazen offensive across swathes of northern Iraq in 2014 and was taken back in 2015, two years before the jihadists were declared territorially defeated in Iraq.

However, ISIS sleeper cells continue to roam near the area, posing security risk to locals through kidnappings, hit-and-run attacks, and bombings. 

The town is also home to the North Oil Refinery - the largest in Iraq - which was reopened in February years after being badly damaged during the brutal reign of ISIS.