ISIS kidnaps 120 civilians in Iraq

Islamic State militants have kidnapped 120 youths near the city of Tikrit in Iraq’s Salahuddin province, 160 kilometres north-west of the capital Baghdad, Anadolu agency reported today.

A spokesman for Salahuddin Council, Marwan Naji, told Anadolu that ISIS (Daesh in Arabic) kidnapped the youngsters from the Abeed and Al-Masarah tribes during a raid on the village of Roubeidah, east of Tikrit. “The elders of the council call on the Iraqi security forces to intervene to save civilians from the brutality of the terrorist organisation which is wreaking havoc in the land,” said Naji. “We fear that the ISIS militants will commit a massacre of the young people, similar to that committed against the tribes of Al-Jabour, Albu Nimr and Albu Fahd.”

The council called on the federal government to speed up the liberation of Salahuddin province from the “terrorists’ grip” and save the people from ISIS, which is committing the “most heinous crimes” against the people.

The so-called Islamic State seized the city of Mosul in northern Iraq last June before expanding its control over large areas of the north, west and east of the country. It is also controlling large parts of northern and eastern Syria.

Iraqi government troops and militias loyal to them, along with Kurdish Pashmerga forces and international coalition aerial support, are fighting ISIS to regain control of the seized areas.