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Killing of Sunni youths prompts calls for end to impunity in Iraq

The killing of at least eight Sunni youths from a village in Iraq’s Salahuddin province, allegedly by groups other than the Islamic State, has sparked outcry and demands for non-local forces to be expelled from the region.

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Sunni Muslim Iraqis pray over the bodies of eight out of 12 men, who had been reportedly kidnapped and later some found shot dead, in the Farhatiya area of the Balad region, located 70 kilometers (around 45 miles) north of Baghdad in the Salaheddin province, on Oct. 18, 2020. Local sources said the four other kidnapped men have not been found and the identities of the assailants remain unknown. — AFP via Getty Images

The specter of a return to sectarian bloodletting in Iraq after the latest killings in the southern part of Salahuddin province has raised alarms in the Sunni-majority province northwest of the capital.

Gruesome photos of the corpses of eight young men from a village in the Farhatiya district near Balad, hands bound behind their backs, appeared in WhatsApp chats and then on social media on the evening of Oct. 17. Twelve men had been kidnapped, but as of Monday morning, it was still unclear what happened to the other four.

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