BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say gunmen have shot dead a member of an anti-Al Qaeda Sunni militia along with his mother.    

A police official said Yousef Sayhoud was killed on Wednesday in his home in the suburb of Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad.

He said the gunmen also wounded Sayhoud's brother. A health official confirmed the deaths.

They spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to talk to the media.

Sayhoud belonged to the pro-government group known as the Sahwa, which joined US troops in the war against Al Qaeda starting in 2005 at the height of the insurgency.

Since then, it has been a target for Sunni insurgents still fighting the Shia-led government, who consider them traitors.