KIRKUK, Iraq: Islamic State group fighters executed nine people yesterday in two northern Iraqi towns on suspicion of ties to anti-miltant Sunni grassroots organisations, security sources and witnesses said. In the town of Azzab, 90km west of the oil hub of Kirkuk, six people were executed in public.
“IS executed four residents of the lower part of Azzab and two from villages near Azzwiya,” a few miles further to the west, a local security official said. Witnesses said the six were accused of being involved in efforts to organise Sunni resistance to IS in the Hawija region. They were executed on a marketplace, they said.
It was in the same area that residents of the village of Tel Ali burned an IS flag last month. In retaliation, the militant group abducted 50 residents and put up flags across the region, even booby-trapping some of them to stop locals from removing them. AFP
