Terrifying execution images in Iraq; U.S. Embassy in Baghdad relocates some staff.

Terrifying execution images in Iraq; U.S. Embassy in Baghdad relocates some staff


Mohammed Tawfeeq, Yousif Basil, Ashley Fantz and Mark Morgenstein, CNN James

The Iraqi air force struck back at the militant group ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, killing more than 200 militants, Iraqi state TV reported Monday morning. 

The air raids took place in Saqlawiyah, northwest of Fallujah, according to a graphic run by state TV.

ISIS has been ruthlessly fighting to take control of Iraq and has apparently posted chilling photos on jihadi Internet forums seeming to show the executions of Iraqi security forces.

CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the images purportedly posted by ISIS. CNN is examining the terrain in the images, some of the signage on buildings in several of the pictures and the uniforms of the apparent victims. Those details suggest the photos are real and were taken in Iraq.

A caption on some of the images reads: “apostates heading to their hole of doom.”

ISIS, an al Qaeda splinter group, wants to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state, that would stretch from Iraq into northern Syria. The group has had substantial success in Syria battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces.

On Friday, a tweet on what was claimed to be an ISIS Twitter account claimed that its members killed at least 1,700 Shiites. 

CNN was unable to verify the authenticity of the account, and the account appeared to have been taken down Sunday.

In a statement, the U.S. State Department condemned the claim by ISIS, also known as ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“The claim by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that it has massacred 1700 Iraqi Shia air force recruits in Tikrit is horrifying and a true depiction of the bloodlust that these terrorists represent. 

While we cannot confirm these reports, one of the primary goals of ISIL is to set fear into the hearts of all Iraqis and drive sectarian division among its people,” part of the statement read. 

“Terrorists who can commit such heinous acts are a shared enemy of the United States, Iraq, and the international community. “

The militants’ quick advance in Iraq has been helped by many Sunnis who feel that the Shiite-dominated government has marginalized them.

ISIS seized Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, last week and has threatened to march on Baghdad, Iraq’s capital and largest city.

But “Mosul didn’t fall,” a defiant Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told military leaders in Baghdad in a speech televised Sunday on state TV. “The ones who have fallen are the politicians who have bet against Iraq.” 

The Prime Minister said, “We will not allow anyone to divide the Iraqi people.”


Al-Maliki called on his top brass and soldiers to march and fight against ISIS, while criticizing Iraqi politicians conspiring against their homeland and Iraqi soldiers who have refused to continue to fight when confronted by ISIS.

“We will march on every inch, with all our weapons, with all our will and faith, so we can liberate and cleanse every inch of Iraq – from the southernmost point to the furthest point in the north,” he exhorted the military leaders.

Despite al-Maliki’s bold statements, ISIS accumulated several victories across Iraq on Sunday.

The northwest Iraqi city of Tal Afar fell to ISIS, according to Iraqi Gen. Mohammed al-Quraishi. Many Tal Afar residents – ethnic minority Shiite Turkmen – fled the fighting north toward Iraq’s Kurdish region. 

Tal Afar is in Nineveh province, midway between the country’s border with Syria and Mosul, north of Baghdad.


Before Iraqi security forces lost Tal Afar, several mortar rounds landed on a busy area in the town and killed at least seven and wounded 33 people, security officials in Baghdad and Tal Afar told CNN.


Also Sunday, ISIS gained control of two villages in Adhaim, in its first push into Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.


On top of that, Iraqi security forces and gunmen believed to be ISIS clashed near al-Khalis, about 18 miles from Diyala’s capital, Baquba, al-Khalis police officials told CNN. Three mortar rounds landed near a recruitment center opened recently for volunteers to help the Iraqi army fight against ISIS.


Baquba is about 37 miles northeast of Baghdad. Baquba is an ethnically-mixed city, though Sunnis represent a slight majority.

Given Baquba’s proximity to Baghdad, if Baquba were to fall, it could give ISIS militants three-pronged access to Baghdad – from Anbar province to the west, Ninevah and Salahuddin provinces to the north and from Diyala province from the northeast.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, CNN Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon was in the Iraqi Kurdish province of Kirkuk, where last Thursday militants took control of two villages.

She asked the local governor, Dr. Najmaldin Karim, whether the United States should launch airstrikes to help fight back ISIS.

“I think they know how to do it, but blanket bombing is not going to work

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