ISIS mass execution: 70 captives rescued in Iraq

Baghdad, Oct 23: At least 70 people who were facing mass execution have been freed after Kurdish and US forces stormed a prison of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq, media reported on Friday.

Five ISIS militants were captured and several others killed in the raid carried out on a compound near Hawijah in northern Iraq, Dawn online reported citing Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook as saying.

"This operation was deliberately planned and launched after receiving information that the hostages faced imminent mass execution," added Cook.

"Approximately 70 hostages were rescued including more than 20 members of the Iraqi security forces," Cook said, adding that the operation had also produced "important intelligence about ISIS."

The security deterioration in Iraq started on June last year when bloody clashes broke out between the Iraqi security forces and hundreds of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Sunni militants who took control of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after the Iraqi security forces withdrew from their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.

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