Violence in Iraq killed eight people, including a police officer, his wife and two children, on Saturday, while gunmen kidnapped 10 security force personnel.

Violence in Iraq killed eight people, including a police officer, his wife and two children, on Saturday, while gunmen kidnapped 10 security force personnel, officials said.

Gunmen broke into the home of the administrator for the Rashid area, south of Baghdad, killing one of his guards, an interior ministry official said.

They then moved to the nearby house of Captain Adnan al-Obaidi, a police officer in an anti-terrorism unit, and killed him, his wife and their two children, the official said.

A medical official confirmed the toll.

Gunmen also shot dead the imam of a mosque near the main southern port city of Basra, police and official said.

In another incident in the Ramadi area, gunmen ambushed a patrol and kidnapped 10 security force personnel, a police lieutenant colonel said.

The area is one of the main centers of the protest movement in Iraq, which began almost five months ago.