Al-Qaida group shows murder of abducted security officers

An al-Qaida front organisation posted a video today showing the execution-style murders of nine Iraqi security officers who were lined up blindfolded with their hands bound behind them and shot in the back of the head.

The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of Iraqi insurgents including al Qaida, had issued a video on Tuesday threatening to kill the nine men unless the government responded within 72 hours to their demands, including the release of all Sunni Muslim women from Iraqi prisons and the handover “of those who raped the Iraqi woman and killed our brethren in Tal Afar.”

“As the deadline given by the Islamic State of Iraq ended, the jurisdiction court decided to execute God’s verdict against those apostates,” a statement posted with the video read.

The video showed the deaths of five army officers and four police officers at the hands of a masked militant dressed in black, who was accompanied by two similarly attired colleagues.

The bodies of the soldiers were shown on the dusty ground after the execution. The authenticity of the video, posted on a website where the group often releases messages, could not be independently confirmed.