Gunmen break into alleged Baghdad brothel and kill 34, mostly women

Jul 14, 2014 11:45 AM EDT

(Photo : REUTERS/Ahmed Malik) An Iraqi policeman looks at blood marks on the ground near an apartment building where a shooting occurred, in Baghdad July 13, 2014. Some 34 people, 28 of them women, were killed on Saturday evening in the apartment building in eastern Baghdad by gunmen wearing a mix of plain clothes and camouflage.

34 people were killed when unidentified gunmen stormed two buildings in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad that neighbors say were being used as brothels.

The attackers, some of them wearing military uniforms, came into the Zayouna neighbourhood in east Baghdad firing their into the streets Saturday night.

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They then broke doors open into the two buildings and started shooting people.

A police officer on the scene said they arrived at the area after the shooting report, and found bodies scattered in and out of the building.

Apparently, Iraqi authorities did not find any survivors in the two buildings.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the motive for the killings has not been made clear as of Monday.

Police found writing on one of the doors that read, "This is the fate of any prostitution," but authorities would not say whether this had anything to do with the attack.

In earlier killings in the Zayouna area, residents have pointed to Shia militias as responsible for the killing the women thought to be prostitutes.

Prostitution is strictly prohibited under Islam, the dominant religion in the country.

But residents said there have been previous murders of suspected prostitutes in the area, and police have been unable to put a stop to the incidents.

A senior police commander said the attackers on Saturday night used silenced weapons when they entered the two buildings, possibly with intent to kill.

When police arrived at the scene, they saw bodies of women on the stairs, and found more when they entered a flat in one of the buildings.

A police colonel said they saw "bodies on the sofa, some on the ground, and one who apparently had tried to hide shot dead in a cupboard in the kitchen."

28 of those killed were women while six were men. The number of injured victims varies from eight to 11.

It was not immediately clear who the killers were, but in 2013, 12 people were killed in similar raids.

Shiite militias have become more active on the streets of Baghdad since Sunni jihadist fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took over large swathes of eastern and northern Iraq a month ago.

TagsBaghdad, Iraq, Sunni