Militants claim mass execution of Iraqi forces

Sunni rebels in Iraq have posted pictures on Twitter apparently showing their fighters killing many Shia soldiers.

The pictures, posted over the weekend, purport to show scores of captured Iraqi soldiers being killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who wrested control of cities and towns in northern Iraq last week.

The images show masked fighters loading the captives onto trucks before forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch with their arms tied behind their backs. The final pictures show the bodies of the captives soaked in blood after being shot.

A caption on one of the pictures suggested that the victims - believed to be security personnel - were punished for fighting Sunnis. The Twitter account where the pictures were posted was suspended hours later.

The ISIL and associated Sunni rebel forces have taken control of large territories in Iraq in the last week, plunging the country into crisis and increasingly splitting communities along sectarian lines.

Chief military spokesman Lieutenant-General Qassim al-Moussawi also confirmed the photos' authenticity and said he was aware of cases of mass murder of captured Iraqi soldiers in areas held by ISIL.

He told Associated Press that an examination of the images by military experts showed that about 170 soldiers were shot to death.

Captions on the photos showing the soldiers after they were shot say "hundreds have been liquidated".

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the ISIL fighters' claim of killing the Iraqi troops "is horrifying and a true depiction of the bloodlust that those terrorists represent".

She added that a claim that 1,700 were killed could not be confirmed by the US.

On Friday, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay warned against "murder of all kinds" and other war crimes in Iraq, saying the number killed in recent days may run into the hundreds.

She said in a statement that her office had received reports that fighters rounded up and killed Iraqi soldiers as well as 17 civilians in a single street in Mosul.

Her office also heard of "summary executions and extrajudicial killings" after ISIL and associated groups overran Iraqi cities and towns, she said.