Sunni Muslim militants fighting to set up a hardline Islamic regime in Iraq posted shocking photos over the weekend showing captured Iraqi government soldiers being loaded by the dozen onto trucks, then gunned down in a mass grave on the side of the road.
The graphic images were taken in the Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, after militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant seized an Iraqi Army base in the area, reported the Long War Journal, a publication which tracks Islamist militant groups.
A photo essay posted on social media platforms associated with the militant group appeared to document the disturbing events as they played out.
(Warning: some of the images are graphic and may be unsettling to some readers.)