Blood-thirsty jihadists are carrying out summary executions on civilians, Iraqi soldiers and police officers - including 17 in one street alone - on their warpath to Baghdad, the UN said today.
As a shocking picture of the ISIS insurgency continues to develop, the Islamist group are posting barbaric videos online with the intent of showing the world they will stop at nothing to achieve their end game.
In one, which is too graphic to publish, fighters are seen knocking on the door of a Sunni police major in the dead of night.
When he answers, they blindfold and cuff him. Then they carve off his head with a knife in his own bedroom as sweetly lilting religious hymns are played over the top.
An image of the officer's decapitated head was tweeted with the sickening message: 'This is our ball. It is made of skin #WorldCup'. ISIS also claims to have executed 1,700 Shia soldiers on their push for the capital.
Although this figure has not been verified, the UN today warned that hundreds of people are likely to have been killed by the fanatics since the uprising.
This evening, President Barack Obama ruled out sending troops back into combat in Iraq but promised to review military options - including air strikes.
President Obama said his national security team would soon provide him with a list of 'selective actions by our military' to help push back a terrorist horde marching through Iraq, but insisted the US 'will not be sending troops back into combat' there.
He also said he would be 'reviewing options in the days ahead,' in a hastily scheduled statement given on the South Lawn of the White House.
Current Secretary of State John Kerry said that 'given the gravity of the situation' he would 'anticipate timely decisions from the president regarding the challenge' in Iraq.
'We have already taken some immediate steps,' he said, 'including providing enhanced aerial surveillance support to assist the Iraqis in this fight. We have also ramped up shipments of military aid to Iraq since the beginning of the year.'
Tonight, Iraq's Prime Minister claimed his forces had started to clear cities of ‘terrorists’.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who travelled to Samarra today for a security meeting, said his forces had ‘began their work to clear all our dear cities from these terrorists,’.
However, he gave no further details of where or when the operations occurred.
The aim of ISIS is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale.
That fear is one factor behind the stunning collapse of Iraqi security forces. In most cases, police and soldiers simply ran, sometimes shedding their uniforms and abandoned arsenals of heavy weapons.
In another video, also purportedly taken by ISIS militants, gunmen are seen carrying out indiscriminate drive-by shootings on motorists and pedestrians.
Armed with a machine-gun, the gang film themselves shooting cars off the road then move in to video close-ups of the victims' blood-stained bodies slumped in the seats. In another clip, they gun down a pedestrian.
The footage, which cannot be independently verified, contains the same logo used in a video posted earlier this week showing an Iraqi businessman being shot in the back of the head.
The British Foreign Office said it was 'very concerned' with the escalating violence and was 'not going to take its eye off the ball'.
More than 20 British nationals are thought to be trapped in rebel-held areas, although officials say there are no plans as yet to stage evacuations in the north or from Baghdad.
However, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain might offer assistance with counter-terrorism expertise to authorities in Iraq.
Speaking after talks on Iraq with US Secretary of State John Kerry in London, Mr Hague stressed that Britain has no intention of putting military boots on the ground in the country.
But he said that a team from the Department for International Development was now on the ground in northern Iraq to see what humanitarian help the UK can give.
ISIS fighters are moving ever closer to the capital after capturing two towns in the eastern province of Diyala as security forces abandoned their posts.
Iraqi security forces, who have until now fled the insurgency, are gathering at a base just 20 miles outside Baghdad ready to protect the city as the threat of all-war loomed.
Security sources said the towns of Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen to the insurgents, as well as several other villages around the Himreen mountains, which have long been a hideout for militants.
U.N human rights spokesman said four women had killed themselves after being raped, 16 Jordanians had been kidnapped, and prisoners released by the militants had been looking to exact revenge on those responsible for their incarceration.
As a shocking picture of the ISIS insurgency continues to develop, the Islamist group are posting barbaric videos online with the intent of showing the world they will stop at nothing to achieve their end game.
In one, which is too graphic to publish, fighters are seen knocking on the door of a Sunni police major in the dead of night.
When he answers, they blindfold and cuff him. Then they carve off his head with a knife in his own bedroom as sweetly lilting religious hymns are played over the top.
An image of the officer's decapitated head was tweeted with the sickening message: 'This is our ball. It is made of skin #WorldCup'. ISIS also claims to have executed 1,700 Shia soldiers on their push for the capital.
Although this figure has not been verified, the UN today warned that hundreds of people are likely to have been killed by the fanatics since the uprising.
This evening, President Barack Obama ruled out sending troops back into combat in Iraq but promised to review military options - including air strikes.
President Obama said his national security team would soon provide him with a list of 'selective actions by our military' to help push back a terrorist horde marching through Iraq, but insisted the US 'will not be sending troops back into combat' there.
He also said he would be 'reviewing options in the days ahead,' in a hastily scheduled statement given on the South Lawn of the White House.
Current Secretary of State John Kerry said that 'given the gravity of the situation' he would 'anticipate timely decisions from the president regarding the challenge' in Iraq.
'We have already taken some immediate steps,' he said, 'including providing enhanced aerial surveillance support to assist the Iraqis in this fight. We have also ramped up shipments of military aid to Iraq since the beginning of the year.'
Tonight, Iraq's Prime Minister claimed his forces had started to clear cities of ‘terrorists’.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who travelled to Samarra today for a security meeting, said his forces had ‘began their work to clear all our dear cities from these terrorists,’.
However, he gave no further details of where or when the operations occurred.
The aim of ISIS is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale.
That fear is one factor behind the stunning collapse of Iraqi security forces. In most cases, police and soldiers simply ran, sometimes shedding their uniforms and abandoned arsenals of heavy weapons.
In another video, also purportedly taken by ISIS militants, gunmen are seen carrying out indiscriminate drive-by shootings on motorists and pedestrians.
Armed with a machine-gun, the gang film themselves shooting cars off the road then move in to video close-ups of the victims' blood-stained bodies slumped in the seats. In another clip, they gun down a pedestrian.
The footage, which cannot be independently verified, contains the same logo used in a video posted earlier this week showing an Iraqi businessman being shot in the back of the head.
The British Foreign Office said it was 'very concerned' with the escalating violence and was 'not going to take its eye off the ball'.
More than 20 British nationals are thought to be trapped in rebel-held areas, although officials say there are no plans as yet to stage evacuations in the north or from Baghdad.
However, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain might offer assistance with counter-terrorism expertise to authorities in Iraq.
Speaking after talks on Iraq with US Secretary of State John Kerry in London, Mr Hague stressed that Britain has no intention of putting military boots on the ground in the country.
But he said that a team from the Department for International Development was now on the ground in northern Iraq to see what humanitarian help the UK can give.
ISIS fighters are moving ever closer to the capital after capturing two towns in the eastern province of Diyala as security forces abandoned their posts.
Iraqi security forces, who have until now fled the insurgency, are gathering at a base just 20 miles outside Baghdad ready to protect the city as the threat of all-war loomed.
Security sources said the towns of Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen to the insurgents, as well as several other villages around the Himreen mountains, which have long been a hideout for militants.
U.N human rights spokesman said four women had killed themselves after being raped, 16 Jordanians had been kidnapped, and prisoners released by the militants had been looking to exact revenge on those responsible for their incarceration.
Source : Dailymail , AFP , Telegraph
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