The office of the Shiites' supreme spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Saturday night issued what amounted to a revision of the ayatollah's call to arms Friday, apparently out of concern that it was misinterpreted by many as a call for sectarian warfare. The statement, billed as "clarifying the position on taking up arms," implored Iraqis, "especially those living in mixed areas, to exert the highest level of self-restraint during this tumultuous period." The claim of the mass execution appeared on a Twitter feed previously used for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant announcements, so whether or not the executions were genuine, the organization certainly intended to boast of them. "We're trying to verify the pics, and I am not convinced they are authentic," said Erin Evers, the Human Rights Watch researcher in Iraq. "As far as ISIS claiming it has killed 1,700 people and publishing horrific photos to support that claim, it is unfortunately in keeping with their pattern of commission of atrocities, and obviously intended to further fuel sectarian war," she said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. News was slow to circulate in Iraq, however, since the government last week blocked social network sites, including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. TAG:Militants claim mass execution of Iraqi soldiers Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant boasted on Twitter that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi government soldiers, posting gruesome photos to support their claim. The authenticity of the photographs and the insurgents' claim could not be verified, and Iraqi government officials initially cast doubt on whether such a mass execution took place. There were also no reports of large numbers of funerals in the Salahuddin province area, where the executions were said to have been conducted. If the claim is true, it would be the worst mass atrocity in either Syria or Iraq in recent years, surpassing even the chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian suburbs of Damascus last year, which killed 1,400 people and were attributed to the Syrian government. The latest attack, if proved, would also raise the specter of the war in Iraq turning genocidal, particularly because the insurgents boasted that their victims were all Shiites. There were also fears that it could usher in a series of reprisal killings of Shiites and Sunnis, like those seen in the Iraq War in 2005-07. The office of the Shiites' supreme spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Saturday night issued what amounted to a revision of the ayatollah's call to arms Friday, apparently out of concern that it was misinterpreted by many as a call for sectarian warfare. The statement, billed as "clarifying the position on taking up arms," implored Iraqis, "especially those living in mixed areas, to exert the highest level of self-restraint during this tumultuous period." The claim of the mass execution appeared on a Twitter feed previously used for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant announcements, so whether or not the executions were genuine, the organization certainly intended to boast of them. "We're trying to verify the pics, and I am not convinced they are authentic," said Erin Evers, the Human Rights Watch researcher in Iraq. "As far as ISIS claiming it has killed 1,700 people and publishing horrific photos to support that claim, it is unfortunately in keeping with their pattern of commission of atrocities, and obviously intended to further fuel sectarian war," she said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. TAG: Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Soldiers Militants claim mass execution of Iraqi soldiers Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Soldiers - NYTimes Militants Claim Photos Show Mass Execution in Iraq - WSJ Kurdish Fighters Killed in Iraqi Strike on Islamist Militants ... ISIL Twitter terror: gruesome Iraq photos and candid selfies of ISIS Militants in Iraq Post Gruesome Images of Mass .. Islamist Militants Slaughter Dozens of Iraqi Soldiers .ISIS Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Soldiers Iraq crisis: ISIS militants push towards Baghdad - as it Militants Claim Mass Execution of (1,700) Iraqi Soldiers ... Executions in Iran 2014‎.. Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Soldiers | Top lates ISIS Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Soldiers ... ISIS Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Soldiers ... ISIS Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Soldiers Iraq Crisis: Isis Militants Claim Mass Killings of Iraqi Soldiers Militants post images of mass execution in Iraq | MidEast ISIS Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Soldiers, Post Grisly ... Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Soldiers Iraqi conflict: ISIS militants post photos of executed soldiers

• published: 15 Jun 2014
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