Sunni rebels in Iraq have posted pictures on Twitter apparently showing their fighters killing captured Shia soldiers.
A Twitter account aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), said the pictures show scores of captured Iraqi soldiers being killed.
The images, released at the weekend, show masked fighters loading the captives on trucks before forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch with their arms tied behind their backs. The final pictures show bodies soaked in blood after being shot.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in northern Iraq, says if the photographs are genuine, it would be by far the biggest single atrocity since the time of the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Their emergence came as the Iraqi government claimed to have "regained the initiative" against the offensive by Sunni rebels led by ISIS – the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
Extremists captured key cities, including Mosul and Tikrit, last week, but several towns have now been retaken from the rebels.
'Taken to their deaths'
The massacre pictures, apparently posted by ISIS, are said to show what happened to soldiers after the group took over an army base in Tikrit.
Video footage, apparently filmed earlier, shows many hundreds of men being marched off, with the voice on tape saying they had surrendered at the Speicher base.
Still photographs show large numbers of young men being transported away in trucks.
Captions on the photographs, which again appeared to have been issued by ISIS, said they were being taken away to their deaths.
What appear to be ISIS fighters are seen firing on their captives in some images.
[youtube height=”500″ width=”800″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxuwEsRMwag[/youtube]
[divider scroll_text=”Back To Top”]