Thursday night, eight people – six members of one family, a lawyer, and a police officer – were killed in al-Boudur village near Tikrit. The armed killers were wearing Iraqi security force uniforms and pretended to be searching houses, according to a statement from the Security Media Cell late on Friday.
The Cell identified the main perpetrator as a former resident of the village who had been expelled for alleged links to ISIS. “He came to take his revenge,” the Cell stated.
The eight victims were buried on Saturday morning. A large crowd attended the funeral, including security officials.
ISIS, on a propaganda channel on Telegram late Friday, claimed responsibility for the murders, including of female members of the family. It accused members of the family of spying for the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic). It added that the police officer and the lawyer were killed for alleged links to the government.
The terror group also released photographs of the victims before they were killed and identity documents of one of the victims, a 41-year-old police officer.
Some of the victims from the family were members of the PMF, Farhan Khadhir, a PMF commander in Tikrit, told Iraqi state media.
Interior Minister Othman al-Ghanimi was part of a delegation sent to Tikrit by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to investigate the murders. “There are calls from the people of the area to change sections [of the security forces] and change the security plan,” the minister told reporters. He said he has discussed the issue with Kadhimi and, “there will be a solution, inshallah.”
Salahaddin is a predominantly Sunni region. Areas of the province, along with Anbar, Nineveh and Diyala in the north and west, fell to ISIS when the group swept through Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. ISIS militants remain a security threat in the area.
Iraqi security forces conduct frequent operations against ISIS in Salahaddin, with the backing of the US-led Global Coalition against ISIS.
Updated at 12:36 pm
