A group linked to al-Qaeda said today it killed 20 Iraqi troops and policemen it had kidnapped, after the government failed to meet a deadline to free female prisoners, according to a statement posted on the internet.
A video by the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq showed a masked militant shooting the blindfolded men in the back of the head with a pistol as they kneeled in a row with their hands bound behind their backs.
The militant called out Islam's rallying cry of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) after each shot, while a masked comrade held up the group's black banner.
"I advise everyone in my unit to leave," a soldier said earlier on the six-minute video which showed off-camera militants interrogating the men who mostly wore brown or blue uniforms.
On Saturday, the group said it was giving the government 48 hours to free all Sunni women held in Iraq's prisons or it would kill the 20 men, who were abducted northeast of Baghdad.
The group also demanded that the government hand over to it Interior Ministry agents accused of involvement in the widely publicised alleged rape of a Sunni woman and other reported killings of Sunnis and rapes.
The video showed close-ups of the men's identification tags, including that of a ministry security unit commander. The authenticity of the tape could not be verified, but it was posted on Web sites often used by al-Qaeda and other insurgents.
The insurgent group, which was formed last year by al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq and several smaller Sunni insurgent groups, has claimed responsibility for mass kidnappings and a series of major attacks.