NYT: Iraqi Sunni Leader and His Family Are Killed in an Ambush

Gunmen with automatic weapons stormed a house outside Falluja on Thursday, Killing Awakening Council member Khudair Hamad al-Issawi, his wife and three of his children.

Sheik Aifan Sadoon Aifan, a member of the Anbar Province provincial council, said al-Issawi, was a target because he gave security officials information about a planned car bomb attack this month. The police defused the bomb.

Mr. Issawi had also turned in two of his older sons to Iraqi authorities for being members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

Mr. Issawi’s village, Fehilat, which is just south of Falluja, remains a hotbed for the Sunni insurgent group. The Awakening Councils, of which Mr. Issawi was a member, are composed largely of members of Sunni tribes who had been allied with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia but who switched sides. Al Qaeda regards council members as traitors and has killed many of them.

READ THIS STORY AT NYTIMES.COM