PHOTOS: Iraqi security forces discover bodies of six men in IS hostage video
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Security sources on Wednesday discovered the bodies of eight detainees kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) near the district of Tuz Khurmatu, six of whom had appeared in a recent video released by the group.
On June 23, IS demanded the release of all Sunni female prisoners in Iraqi jails in a hostage video published to their online forums.
The extremist group gave Baghdad a three-day deadline to free the women before it executes six men who appeared in the video.
The men in the video identify themselves as Iraqi police officers and militiamen.
The footage was published one week after IS announced the kidnapping of 17 members of Iraq’s Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militia, according to the Associated Press.
The spokesperson for the Prime Minister of Iraq on Monday said the government would not yield to the demands of the extremist group.
“The Iraqi government will use the law against criminals and will not capitulate to terrorist’s demands,” the Iraqi Prime Minister’s spokesperson, Saad al-Hadithi, told al-Mada newspaper.
Hadithi stated they would not be “responding to the letters” the “terrorists” had released, adding the group’s demands “have no value.”
As the deadline approached, people who identified some of the captives in the video as relatives called on the government to comply with the IS demands.
Baghdad is currently conducting trials for hundreds of foreign women and children who have been detained by Iraqi troops during military operations to liberate the country from the grip of the militants over the past year.
Following the emergence of the extremist group in Iraq and Syria in 2014, thousands of foreign nationals joined IS. Accompanying them were women who came from different parts of the world.
According to Iraq’s counterterrorism law, aiding or membership in the extremist group carries the penalty of life in prison or death.
WARNING: Graphic photos below published by al-Furat News Agency.
