Gunmen kill 12 at Baghdad brothel, officials say

Seven women and five men were killed at a brothel in Baghdad on Tuesday, medical and security officials said.

The attack took place at an apartment in the Zayouna area of east Baghdad. A similar attack took place in the same place last year.

Last May 22, gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on a house that was used as a brothel in the Zayouna area.

The week before, gunmen restrained police officers at a checkpoint in the same area, and shot dead 12 people at a row of adjoining alcohol shops nearby.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings.

It took just five days for this month's death toll to surpass that for all of January last year.

(With AFP)