Reports have emerged that the Iraqi militia members have reportedly started 'revenge killing' of Isis prisoners after a recent online video found Iraqi soldiers brutally beheading a militant.
The video released on LiveLeak.com shows the gruesome killing of an Isis prisoner captured by men, reported to be Iraqi soldiers. In the one minute and thirty-six second video, the injured captive is seen being stabbed in the face several times before being decapitated.
The video, which was uploaded anonymously on the popular video-sharing website, threatens to destabilise the Shia-Sunni alliance. While it is not clear as to where the video was filmed, it is said that the Isis fighter shown in the clip was captured after he got injured in the battle.
Ever since the Iraqi forces mounted an attack on the Isis to take back Tikrit, there were fears of sectarian violence and such reprisal killings were imminent.
On Tuesday, several Iraqi news sources released images of Iraqi special forces torturing and beheading captured Isis militants. The pictures, widely shared on social media, showed Iraqi soldiers posing with disembodied heads and mutilated bodies of the militants.
The images that were released first on the social media allegedly stated that the killings were to avenge the hundreds of Iraqi soldiers killed by the Sunni militant group.
Since Monday, Iraqi forces' operation to retake the city of Tikrit has been halted owing to the heavy causalities suffered by the former at the hands of Isis fighters. Iraq's interior minister, Mohammed al-Ghabban, confirmed on Monday that the offensive has "temporarily stopped".
The Washington Post noted that Tikrit operation has to be stalled owing largely to the steady flow of coffins arriving in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Najaf where cemetery workers say as many as 60 bodies are arriving each day.
