Seven killed in Iraq attack

At least seven members of a family were killed Saturday in an attack in Iraq's Diyala province, a police source said.

The people were attacked in the morning, when several mortar rounds landed on a Shiya village near the provincial capital of Baquba, 65 km from Iraq's capital Baghdad, the source told Xinhua.

Women and children were among those killed in the blasts that destroyed a house in the village, the source said.

Violence and sectarian tensions have been running high in the past few months between Sunni and Shiya communities in Diyala province, as they accuse each other of supporting extremists.

Diyala province has been a volatile area since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated military operations against militants.