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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMilitants Claim Mass Execution of (1,700) Iraqi Soldiers
BAGHDAD Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria boasted on Twitter that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi government soldiers, posting gruesome photos to support their claim.
The authenticity of the photographs and the insurgents claim could not be verified, and Iraqi government officials initially cast doubt on whether such a mass execution took place. There were also no reports of large numbers of funerals in the Salahuddin Province area, where the executions were said to have been conducted.
If the claim is true, it would be the worst mass atrocity in either Syria or Iraq in recent years, surpassing even the chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian suburbs of Damascus last year, which killed 1,400 people and were attributed to the Syrian government.
The latest attack, if proved, would also raise the specter of the war in Iraq turning genocidal, particularly because the insurgents boasted that their victims were all Shiites. There were also fears that it could usher in a series of reprisal killings of Shiites and Sunnis, like those seen in the Iraq war in 2005-7.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/world/middleeast/iraq.html?_r=0
cali
(114,904 posts)morningfog
(18,115 posts)I posted this because, for one, it is sickening if true. But, second, notice how the article compares the alleged killing of government and military members with the chemical attacks in Syria. There is a clear march to renewed military involvement in Iraq.
This would be a horrible mistake. I hope Obama can practice restraint and not get back in. The US military has no role here. Not troops, air strikes or drone strikes. This is their civil war to fight, we have done far too much damage.
Shankapotomus
(4,840 posts)The ISIS atrocities are being posted on YouTube for all to see. Some of the perpetrators aren't even bothering to hide their faces. This must be the first voluntarily documented mass murder/genocide/war crimes in history. They have no shame about it. (Unless someone in their ranks is posting the videos clandestinely?) They are unrepentant thugs. The video boast of even killing children.