Sunni militants kidnap dozens of men in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Residents say militants affiliated with the extremist Islamic State group have kidnapped dozens of men from a Sunni village north of Baghdad, The Associated Press reported.

The militants took some 50 men from Tal Ali village, around 240 kilometres north of Baghdad, on Thursday, residents said. The men were loaded onto trucks and driven away, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.

The militants had retreated from the village the day before, fearing an attack by the Iraqi army. When they left, residents set fire to an Islamic State flag.

The Islamic State group spearheaded an offensive in June, seizing vast swaths of northern Iraq. The group has published grisly photos of the mass killing of captives in areas under its control in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

Meanwhile, a car bomb killed 12 people and wounded 30 in Baghdad’s mainly Shiite Muslim Kadhimiya neighbourhood on Thursday evening, police said, according to Reuters.

The explosion was the fourth attack in Shiite districts of the capital in two weeks.

“Cars are set ablaze...this place has been targeted several times as it’s very crowded,” a policeman near the blast scene said. He said the bomb detonated near shops and restaurants.