DHAKA: Gunmen attacked 12 liquor stores in Baghdad on Saturday, killing nine people, police said, the latest in a series of assaults on alcohol sellers in the capital.

The attackers approached the stores in SUVs and shot dead people inside shops and supermarkets and wounded two.

Police said most of the victims were members of Iraq’s Yazidi Kurdish minority who tend to staff alcohol stores.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Shia Muslim militias, who warn against practices they see as going against their strict interpretation of Islam, are believed to have been behind assaults on liquor stores and cafes earlier this year.

BDST: 1548 HRS, DEC 08, 2013