Nine people were found dead in two separate incidents in Iraq's Salaheddin province, north of the capital Baghdad. In Tuz Khurmatu, six policemen were shot dead by militants who had surrounded their encampment protecting a construction site. Local officials said the militants forced the policemen to pray before killing them, in an effort to find out whether they were Shia or Sunni. And in Baiji, the decapitated heads of three men were found in a market. The men included an anti-al-Qaeda militia chief, his son and his cousin. All had been kidnapped late on Thursday near Salaheddin's provincial capital, Tikrit. The incidents are the latest in a wave of violence which has gripped Iraq in the past months. This comes as the Iraqi army is fighting al-Qaeda-linked militants in the western province of Anbar, to fully push them out of the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. Some have called on the government to seed up operations against those behind the violence. Authorities have blamed the escalation of violence on extremists who are coming to Iraq from other countries. Last month, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the surge in violence on what he called treacherous Arab states. But, he did not specify which countries back terrorists in Iraq. However, some Iraqi officials have previously blamed Saudi Arabia for sending terrorists into the country. Iraqi authorities say more than one-thousand people were killed in terror attacks in January alone. Iraqis are calling on the government to speed up operations to hunt down perpetrators, as the country is experiencing some of the worst violence in years.

• published: 10 Feb 2014
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