[This image posted on a militant website on Saturday, June 14, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, appears to show militants from the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leading captured Iraqi soldiers wearing plain clothes to an open field moments before shooting them in Tikrit, Iraq. The Islamic militant group that seized much of northern Iraq has posted photos that appear to show its fighters shooting dead dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers]
[Genocide in Iraq]
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and SAMEER N. YACOUB
BAGHDAD (AP) — As the Iraqi government bolstered Baghdad's defenses Sunday, the Islamic militant group that captured two major cities last week posted graphic photos that appeared to show its fighters massacring dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers.
The pictures on a militant
website appear to show masked fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant, or ISIL, loading the captives onto flatbed trucks before
forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch with their arms tied
behind their backs. The final images show the bodies of the captives
soaked in blood after being shot.
The
grisly images could further sharpen sectarian tensions as hundreds of
Shiites heed a call from their most revered spiritual leader to take up
arms against the Sunni militants who have swept across the north. ISIL
has vowed to take the battle to Baghdad and cities further south housing
revered Shiite shrines.
A car bomb meanwhile exploded in
central Baghdad, killing 10 and wounding 21, according to police and
hospital officials. Baghdad has seen an escalation in suicide and car
bombings in recent months, mostly targeting Shiite neighborhoods or
security forces.
While the
city of seven million is not in any immediate danger of falling into the
hands of the militants, Sunday's bombing could raise tensions. Food
prices in the city have risen, twofold in some cases, because of
disruption to transport on the main road heading north from the capital.
The
government bolstered defenses around Baghdad Sunday, a day after
hundreds of Shiite men paraded through the streets with arms in response
to a call by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for Iraqis to defend their
country. ISIL has vowed to attack Baghdad but its advance to the south
seems to have stalled in recent days. Thousands of Shiites have also
volunteered to join the fight against the ISIL, also in response to
al-Sistani's call.
Armed police, including SWAT
teams, were seen over the weekend manning checkpoints in Baghdad,
searching vehicles and checking drivers' documents. Security was
particularly tightened on the northern and western approaches of the
city, the likely targets of any advance by ISIL fighters on the capital.
The city looked gloomy on Sunday, with thin traffic and few shoppers in
commercial areas.
At one
popular park along the Tigris river, only a fraction of the thousands
who usually head there were present on Sunday evening. In the commercial
Karada district in central Baghdad, many of the sidewalk hawkers who
sell anything from shoes to toys and clothes were absent.
The
crisis in Iraq has prompted the United States to order an aircraft
carrier into the Persian Gulf. It also laid out specific ways for Iraq
to show it is forging the national unity necessary to gain assistance in
its fight against the ISIL and other militants.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on
Saturday ordered the USS George H.W. Bush from the northern Arabian Sea
as President Barack Obama considered possible military options for
Iraq. Hagel's press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said the move will
give Obama additional flexibility if military action were required to
protect American citizens and interests in Iraq.
Accompanying
the carrier will be the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and
the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun. The ships, which carry
Tomahawk missiles that could reach Iraq, were expected to complete their
move into the Persian Gulf by the end of the day. The Bush's fighter
jets also could easily reach Iraq.
In
neighboring Iran, the acting commander of the Islamic Republic's army
ground forces, Gen. Kiomars Heidari, said Iran has increased its
defenses along its western border with Iraq, though there was no
immediate threat to the frontier.
In Baghdad, Iraqi government
officials said ISIL fighters were trying to capture the city of Tal Afar
in northern Iraq on Sunday and raining down rockets seized last week
from military arms depots. The officials said the local garrison
suffered heavy casualties and the town's main hospital was unable to
cope with the number of wounded, without providing exact numbers.
The
officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to speak to reporters. Tal Afar is mainly inhabited by
Turkmen, an ethnic minority.
Iraq's
top military spokesman, Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, confirmed that
fighting was raging at Tal Afar, but indicated that the militants were
suffering heavy casualties. On all fronts north of the capital, he said,
a total of 297 militants have been killed in the past 24 hours.
There was no way to independently confirm his claims.
ISIL
and allied Sunni militants captured a vast swath of northern Iraq last
week, including second city Mosul and Saddam Hussein's hometown of
Tikrit, as Iraqi troops, many of them armed and trained by the U.S.,
fled in disarray, surrendering vehicles, weapons and ammunition to the
powerful extremist group, which also fights in Syria.
The
captions of the photos say the killings were to avenge the killing of
an ISIL commander, Abdul-Rahman al-Beilawy, whose death was reported by
both the government and ISIL shortly before the al-Qaida splinter
group's lightning offensive, which has plunged Iraq into its bloodiest
crisis since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011.
"This
is the fate that awaits the Shiites sent by Nouri to fight the Sunnis,"
one caption read, apparently referring to Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki.
Al-Moussawi, the military
spokesman, confirmed the photos' authenticity and said he was aware of
cases of mass murder of captured Iraqi soldiers in areas held by ISIL.
U.N.
human rights chief Navi Pillay warned on Friday of "murder of all
kinds" and other war crimes in Iraq, and said the number killed in
recent days may run into the hundreds, while the wounded could approach
1,000.
Speaking in Geneva,
she said her office has received reports that militants rounded up and
killed Iraqi soldiers as well as 17 civilians in a single street in
Mosul.
Her office also heard
of "summary executions and extrajudicial killings" after ISIL militants
overran Iraqi cities and towns, the statement said.
Most
of the soldiers who appear in the pictures are in civilian clothes.
Some are shown wearing military uniforms underneath, indicating they may
have hastily disguised themselves as civilians to try to escape.
Many soldiers and policemen left
their uniforms and equipment behind as the militants swept into Mosul,
Tikrit and surrounding areas.
The
captions did not provide a date or location, but al-Moussawi said the
killings took place in Salahuddin province, the capital of which is
Tikrit.
Some of the pictures appeared to show some of the soldiers pleading for their lives, others seemed terrified.
All
soldiers appeared in their early 20s, with some wearing the jerseys of
such European soccer clubs like Manchester United and Barcelona. Some of
the militants wore black baggy pants and shirts, many of them had
sandals or flip flops.
Iraqi
authorities appear to be trying to limit the dissemination of such
images and other militant propaganda being shared through social media
and to deny the militants their use for operational purposes.
Martin Frank, the CEO of IQ
Networks, an Internet service provider in Iraq, told The Associated
Press that authorities have ordered multiple social media sites
including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to be blocked. On Sunday, they
tightened the restrictions further by telling network operators to halt
traffic for virtual private networks, which allow users to bypass
Internet filters.
Internet
traffic in several areas overrun by militants, including Mosul and
Tikrit, was ordered to be cut off altogether, he said.
No timeframe was given for the shutdowns.
___
Associated
Press writers Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Raphael
Satter in London and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed reporting.
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