Islamic State shows captured Iraqi troops

BAGHDAD – The Islamic State group Tuesday paraded captured Iraqi troops through the streets of a militant stronghold west of Baghdad, residents said.

Residents of Fallujah said about 30 men in Iraqi military uniforms, who were captured earlier this week, were driven in the back of seized military vehicles through the city, about 30 miles west of Baghdad. The captured soldiers looked very exhausted, eyewitnesses said.

The militants driving the convoy blasted songs glorifying the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as they paraded their captives. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety.

On Sunday, Islamic State fighters disguised in Iraqi army uniforms and driving stolen Humvees attacked an Iraqi army camp in the western Anbar province, killing 40 troops and capturing 68.

Meanwhile, the country’s new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, forced two top generals to retire as part of a plan to restructure the military, which suffered significant losses when the Islamic State group advanced on the city of Mosul in June.

Israelis kill suspects in teens’ slayings

JERUSALEM – Israeli special forces stormed a West Bank hideout early Tuesday and killed two Palestinians suspected in the June abduction and slaying of three Israeli teenagers, a gruesome attack that had triggered a chain of events that led to the war in Gaza this summer.

The deaths of the two suspects, identified by the Israeli military as well-known Hamas militants, ended one of the largest manhunts conducted by the Israeli security forces.

Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship, were abducted June 12 while hitchhiking home in the West Bank and killed soon afterward.

The teens’ abduction and slaying prompted a large Israeli crackdown on the Islamic militant Hamas group and set off a chain of events that led to a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Associated Press