Terrorists attacked a military base in north Iraq, kidnapped 20 soldiers and later shot them dead.

Terrorists attacked a military base in north Iraq, kidnapped 20 soldiers and later shot them dead.

Officers and a morgue employee reported that the soldiers were abducted by a large group of insurgents in several vehicles from a small base in the Ain al-Jahash south of Mosul, and their bodies were found in the area on Saturday night.

But accounts of when the attack took place varied, with a police major and morgue employee putting it on Saturday night, while an army major general said it had taken place earlier in the week.

The police major said the soldiers had been shot in various parts of their bodies and that their hands had not been bound.

The attack comes after militants killed 12 soldiers and wounded 15 in an April 17 assault on a military base west of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province.
The province is one of the most consistently violent areas in Iraq.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest violence in Iraq, but al-Qaeda-linked militants, including the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), frequently attack Iraqi security forces.