By Xinhua
Baghdad : Gunmen attacked the house of a police officer in the volatile Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, killing 14 people and kidnapping three children, a provincial police source said Friday.
"Late on Thursday, gunmen stormed the house of Colonel Ali Dlayyan al-Jurani, police chief of Baquba's emergency police unit, in the town of Kan'an, some 25 km southeast of Baquba City," the source said.
The attackers killed Jurani's wife, his brother and 12 of his bodyguards along with kidnapping three of his children, the source said.
Jurani was not at home during the attack, he added.
Diyala province, which stretches from Baghdad to the Iranian border to the east, has long been the hotbed of insurgency and sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.