Al Qaeda group claims responsibility for executions!

On April 17, 2007 the islamic State in Iraq (possibly the same as the mujahideen shura council), an Iraqi terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed that the previously kidnapped 20 Iraqi police and soldiers that they claimed responsiblity for would be killed.

According to information released by an internet posting from the group on April 17, 2005, the Iraqi government failed to meet the group's original demands within the deadline provided. Those demands included that all female sunni prisoners being held in Iraqi jails be released AND that the government release to the group those Interior Ministry agents who were "accused of involvement in the widely publicized alleged rape of a Sunni woman and other reported rapes and killings of Sunnis."

"Our Islamic court ... has ruled (to execute) them and we shall soon issue pictures of it," the internet posting stated.

I found the story today on Yahoo News. I tried to link it but, as usual with Yahoo the link wouldn't work.

Here's the story as it was released.

Terror group posts execution video
By OMAR SINAN, Associated Press Writer

"CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida-led Iraqi insurgents issued a video Thursday purporting to show the killing of 20 kidnapped Iraqi police and soldiers, shot in the head execution-style as they knelt in a row.

The video showed a masked gunman walking down the row of captives, who were blindfolded with hands bound behind their backs outdoors in a clearing near trees. He shot them one by one, sending each tumbling forward as three other masked militants stood nearby, holding a black banner of the Islamic State of Iraq.

The Islamic State of Iraq, a coalition of Sunni insurgents including al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed on Saturday to have abducted the 20 and threatened to kill them after 48 hours unless the government freed female prisoners and handed over police accused of rapes in the northern town of Tal Afar.

The authenticity of the six-minute video could not be independently confirmed. It was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum where the Islamic State of Iraq has issued previous videos.

The Iraqi government has denied that 20 police and soldiers were kidnapped. Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Thursday that the men in the video could not be identified and said the insurgents may have dressed up civilians to kill them.

"We checked with our commands then and all the troops were accounted for," Khalaf told The Associated Press. "They are immoral criminals. They have used all criminal methods and we don't rule out that they executed civilians whom they dressed in military uniforms."

The video first showed the 20 men inside a room, lined up in three rows with black blindfolds over their eyes and their hands tied behind their backs. In front of a black Islamic State of Iraq flag, they wore blue police uniforms or military fatigues, and the camera focused on ID badges from the Defense or Interior Ministry on their chests. Some can be heard identifying themselves on the video and giving their positions in the military or security forces.

"I call upon the brothers in the national guards to agree to throw down their weapons and return to the path of God and Islam," said one after identifying himself as Mizher Jassem Mohammed Hussein, an engineer and army captain.

One of the men, wearing army fatigues, was seen shaking and swaying back and forth as he stood, then collapsing as his colleagues spoke.

The Islamic State of Iraq has claimed responsibility for attacks on Iraq's security forces, denouncing them as "apostates" helping U.S. troops, and has carried out numerous suicide bombings, most targeting Shiite civilians."

When will this senseless slaughter end?

islam, the peaceful religion???

I think not!