[Iran Press TV] Members of the ISIL Takfiri group have executed a Muslim preacher in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul as they seek to promote their own heavily distorted and austere interpretation of religious principles in the areas under their control.A local source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ISIL extremists decapitated Sheikh Mushir al-Naqshbandi, the imam of the al-Salehin Mosque, in the western al-Ghazlani neighborhood of the city, located some 400 kilometers (248 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, on Thursday, Arabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network reported.
The source added that the militants beheaded the clergyman in front of a large crowd of onlookers after accusing him of spreading religious teachings deemed as opposed to those of the Takfiris.
Meanwhile, Iraqi military aircraft carried out precision strikes against terrorist hideouts in the al-Rashad district of the town of al-Karmah, situated about 48 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad. A total of 17 ISIL extremists were killed in the aerial attack.