NOVANEWS
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group on Monday released pictures of the execution of 13 men described as “anti-jihadist” tribal fighters near the northern city of Tikrit.
Three pictures published on a jihadist forum and on pro-ISIS social media accounts show the execution of men wearing orange jumpsuits.
Local residents confirmed to AFP that a mass execution had taken place on a large roundabout six kilometers (four miles) east of the city of Tikrit at around 3:30 pm.
The first picture shows 11 men kneeling, heads bowed, with one black-clad and masked gunman behind each one and ISIS flags in the background.
The next picture shows the gunmen brandishing their handguns after the execution, and in the third a small gathering of onlookers, including children, can be seen near 13 bodies, which have been dragged off the roundabout’s central island and onto the road.
Residents said the roundabout is at an intersection for roads leading to Tikrit, Kirkuk and the town of al-Alam.
They said the men who were executed were members of an anti-ISIS group of tribal fighters known as the Knights of al-Alam who were captured by militants in Tikrit and al-Alam around 10 days earlier.
The city of Tikrit has been under ISIS control since the beginning of the militants’ major offensive in Iraq six months ago.
ISIS has so far executed thousands in Iraq and Syria, targeting, in particular, ethnic and religious minorities, as well any who oppose the group’s ideology.
Iraq’s government has been encouraging tribes to rise up against the extremist group that met little resistance when it swept through the country’s heartland in June.
On June 12, 2014, ISIS killed at least 1,700 Iraqi Air Force soldiers in an attack on Camp Speicher in Tikrit, northwest of the Iraqi capital. At the time of the attack there were between 4,000 and 11,000 unarmed cadets in the camp.
On September 22, ISIS executed women’s rights activist Samira Saleh al-Nuaimi, reportedly because she had condemned the demolition of historical heritage sites by ISIS on social media.
Large swathes of land in Iraq have become ISIS strongholds as the extremist group, which declared a “caliphate” in the territory it seized in Iraq and Syria, drove Iraq’s army to collapse. A US-led air campaign against the group since August has failed to push back ISIS in either country.
However, the Iraqi army, backed by volunteering fighters, has inflicted a string of defeats on the jihadists in recent weeks.
