Iraq: Dozens of women slaughtered in Baghdad gun raid

At least 33 people, including 29 women, were killed in a raid by gunmen on a Baghdad housing complex on Saturday night.

A minimum of 18 others were wounded in the attack, police said.

Officials from a local hospital and from the interior ministry confirmed the casualties, the Associated Press said.

The motive behind the killings remains unclear, but Iraqi police say there are suspicions that the buildings were being used as a brothel.

At least 20 of the 29 people killed in a shooting at a Baghdad apartment building were women, a police officer and hospital official said.

The police officer said: "When we walked up the stairs, we saw a couple of women's bodies and blood streaming down the stairs."

He added: "We entered a flat and found bodies everywhere, some lying on the sofa, some on the ground, and one woman who apparently had tried to hide in a cupboard in the kitchen shot to death there."

There was no way to immediately confirm who was responsible for the attack.