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The Beatings Will Continue: Iraqi Edition
 3rd Mass grave found in Hawija Hawija (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi paramilitary troops ran on Tuesday into another mass grave of security members executed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Kirkuk. Popular Mobilization Forces’ media service said the forces discovered a third mass grave of executed security members in Abu Sakhra village in Abbassi, southwest of the group’s stronghold town of Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk. “Mobilization forces are waiting for specialized teams to examine the martyr’s relics and identify them,” said the media outlet. The PMFs had found two other mass graves of security victims on Monday in Abu Sakhra and al-Therban villages. Iraqi government and PMF forces have discovered dozens of mass graves of security members and civilians executed by the Islamic State as they gradually regained control of areas occupied by the militants in 2014. On Monday, the Joint Operations Command said government and PMF forces recaptured up to 45 villages during a second phase of operations launched last Friday to retake Hawija, a town southwest of Kirkuk which the militants have held since 2014. ISIS decries treason in Hawija Hawija (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State members are accusing people at their Kirkuk stronghold town of Hawija of treason as security and paramilitary forces come closer to retaking the region. A local source told Alsumaria News that some Arab leaders within the militant group delivered sermons through Hawija mosques accusing the local population of “treason”, “dishonoring a pledge of allegiance” and collaborating with the Iraqi army and the allied Popular Mobilization Forces. The source said that was the first time the group makes such an accusation against locals in the southwestern Kirkuk bastion. Also in Kirkuk, Jabbar al-Maamouri, a senior PMF leader, told Alsumaria News that Islamic State’s internal defense lines have begun to collapse after many militants had fled their deployments at rooftops and vital intersections in the town. Posted by: badanov 2017-10-04 |
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