The Takfiri ISIL militant group has reportedly executed 13 of its own members in Iraq’s northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk who contacted Kurdish Peshmerga forces and planned to surrender.
A Peshmerga source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the ISIL terrorists killed the fellow extremists on the grounds that they had sent short text messages to the Kurdish fighters, and voiced their readiness to lay down arms.
“The militants were Arabs that joined ISIL after the group took control of their area,” the source said. “So far, more than 10 ISIL militants have surrendered to Peshmerga forces in the area.”
On February 11, ISIL killed 23 of its own members by firing squad in the city of Tal Afar, located 420 kilometers (260 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad.
An unnamed local source said the executed militants had escaped clashes with Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Wana, located around 40 kilometers (24 miles) northwest of the city of Mosul, and Wadi Noran district.
A day earlier, on February 10, ISIL executed 13 fellow Takfiris after they suffered defeat during an offensive in Kirkuk Province.
On February 5, China’s English-language Global Times newspaper, citing an unnamed Kurdish security official, reported that a Chinese ISIL militant had been “arrested, tried and shot dead” by the terror group in Syria in late September. The execution came after the Chinese citizen became disillusioned with the Takfiri group and decided to return to Turkey.
“Another two Chinese militants were beheaded in late December in Iraq, along with 11 others from six countries,” said the Kurdish official, adding that the ISIL terrorists “charged them with treason and accused them of trying to escape.”
ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily armed militants took control of the country’s northern city of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.
Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen have succeeded in driving the ISIL terrorists out of some areas in Iraq.
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