The wife and daughter of an anti-Al Qaeda leader in Iraq were Saturday gunned down inside their house, Xinhua reported.

Gunmen stormed the house of Sheikh Dhiyab Mahmoud, leader of the government-backed Awakening Council in Grama town near Fallujah, around 50 km from Baghdad, a police official said.

The attackers shot dead Mahmoud's wife and daughter. Mahmoud was not at home at the time of the attack, the official said.

The Awakening Council -- also known as Sons of Iraq movement or Sahwa -- comprises mostly of anti-US Sunni groups, who later turned against the Al Qaeda.