Terrorist militants in Iraq brutally killed nine people for sectarian reasons in two separate attacks.
Terrorists of the so-called "Islamic State in Iraq and Levant" (ISIL) brutally killed nine people for sectarian reasons in two separate attacks.
The first incident took place when al-Qaeda-linked terrorists forced Shiite policemen to pray before killing them, while the second was discovered when decapitated heads were left in a market.
The two incidents both took place in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad, leaving nine dead in all, Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted security and medic
al officials as saying.
In Tuz Khurmatu, insurgents surrounded a police encampment protecting a stadium construction site and gathered the six policemen as a group and shot them all dead, two security officials and a doctor at the local hospital said.
One of the six, however, only died at hospital, and according to a local Tuz official, said that the insurgents had attempted to find out if the policemen were Sunni or Shiite before killing them.
The militants asked them which sect they belonged to and the policemen, who were Shiite Turkmen, initially said they were Sunni in an effort to save themselves, the town official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The victims were forced to pray as a group and their efforts to mask their confessional background were undone.
In a separate incident in Baiji, the decapitated heads of three men were found in a town market Sunday morning, two police officers in the town said.
The men -- an anti-Qaeda militia chief, his son and his cousin -- were kidnapped late on Thursday near provincial capital Tikrit.
ISIL, which also operates in neighboring Syria, frequently carries out attacks against Shiites in a bid to inflame the sectarian sedition in the country.
