IS militants kidnap around 50 in North Iraq village

It is not the first time IS has carried out mass kidnappings in Iraq.

2 min readKirkukSep 4, 2014 06:40 PM IST First published on: Sep 4, 2014 at 06:40 PM IST

Shiite militiamen hold the flag of the Islamic State group they captured, during an operation outside Amirli, some 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Under the shadow of the Islamic State group threat, governments from France to Indonesia are moving aggressively to block would-be jihadis from taking their fight to Syria and Iraq. (Source: AP)

Shiite militiamen hold the flag of the Islamic State group they captured, during an operation outside Amirli, north of Baghdad, Iraq. (Source: AP)

Jihadists kidnapped dozens of residents of a northern Iraq village on Thursday after villagers burned one of their positions along with a jihadist flag, police and witnesses said. The militants of the Islamic State (IS) group had withdrawn from Tal Ali in Kirkuk province yesterday, but returned in force on Thursday and abducted some 50 people, the sources said.

It is not the first time IS has carried out mass kidnappings in Iraq, with the group abducting thousands of civilians as it overran minority-populated northern villages last month, according to human rights group Amnesty International.

Amnesty has accused IS of “systematic ethnic cleansing,” including mass killings, of ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq. A senior UN rights official has said the group is responsible for “acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale.”