US, Saudi-Backed Iraqi Militants Kill 14 Shia Muslims at a Fake Roadblock

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Militants in Iraq shot 14 Shia tanker drivers at a makeshift roadblock while checking their identity documents, according to local police. The blockade was located 160km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, in the town of Sulaiman Pek.The late Wednesday killings followed clashes between the militants and the army and police. The Mayor of Sulaiman Pek, Talib Mohamed, told Reuters that "all the victims were Shia tanker drivers who were coming from Baghdad to Kirkuk," adding that "militants blocked their way near Sulaiman Pek, checked their IDs and executed them by shooting them in the heads and chest." Another testimony to the increasing deterioration of security in the country was Sunday’s jailbreak, when around 500 prisoners - many of them in al-Qaeda’s top echelons - broke out of two prisons. Responsibility for the prison attacks lay with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - a terrorist cell born out of a merger between al-Qaeda’s Iraqi and Syrian branches. A security official told Reuters on Tuesday that some of the escapees headed for neighboring Syria to join the predominantly Sunni rebel ranks in their fight against the forces of President Bashar Assad . For their part, Sunni militants in Iraq are increasingly recruiting members from their religious order, as feelings of resentment towards the Shia government continue to grow - as they have ever since the US-led invasion of 2003, which led to the toppling of former leader Saddam Hussein.Although 2008 was Iraq’s bloodiest year, 2013 is quickly approaching similar figures, with more than 720 people having lost their lives in extremist attacks in July alone, according to various estimates. Related News: Iraq: Motorbike Bomb Hit Shiite Areas of Tuz Khormato, Killing At Least 11 /129