Iraq’s Interior Ministry is being linked to the killing of eleven relatives of a prominent journalist and critic of the Iraqi government. Colleagues say masked gunmen stormed the family home of Dhia al-Kawaz, killing his sisters, their husbands and children as they ate breakfast. Al-Kawaz is editor of the Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He was in Jordan at the time of the alleged murders. Reporters Without Borders says Iraqi police failed to intervene to stop the shootings. Friends say al-Kawaz has received several threats for his criticism of the US occupation and Iraq’s sectarian strife. On Monday, he called the attack “a message to me and to any journalist inside Iraq or outside Iraq who opposes the policies of the Iraqi government.”