Gunmen stormed a house in eastern Baghdad in Wednesday's wee hours shooting to death 12 people before fleeing the bloodied scene, police said. The unknown armed men burst into the house in Al-Zaitouna neighborhood and shot dead 12 persons including five women with silencer-equipped guns. The assailants fled the scene before policemen and security personnel arrived and started investigations into circumstances of the incident. A source speculated that these persons were murdered due to "criminal rather than terrorist motives." An identical recent incident happened at a house, notorious for prostitution.