Baghdad/Xinhua: Unidentified gunmen shot dead six family members in a village in the Iraqi province of Salahudin, a provincial police source said Saturday.

The incident took place late on Friday night when the armed men broke into the house of Ali Mukhlif, administrative head of Samoum village in the northwest of the city of Samarra, some 120 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad.

The attackers opened fire with their assault rifles and shot dead Mukhlif, four of his sons and his nephew before they fled to nearby orchards.

An Iraqi security force rushed to the scene and launched an investigation into the incident, he added.