Baghdad — Fighters from a Sunni extremist group attacked an army unit in a northern Iraqi city on Tuesday, killing 15 soldiers in a rampage of beheadings, shootings and a hanging, security officials said.
The strike on the army unit in Mosul by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, showed how the group has moved beyond Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, where it controls Falluja and parts of Ramadi, and extended its reach into territory throughout the country.
On Tuesday, the ISIS extremists drove up to the army unit, which was deployed to secure an oil pipeline that links Iraq and Turkey, in more than a dozen sport utility vehicles, bent on slaughter. They beheaded five soldiers, shot nine dead and hanged one on a wall, torturing him to death, the officials said.
The authorities said that it was becoming more common for large numbers of ISIS extremists to carry out deadly raids and bombings in areas outside Anbar Province as the army of the Shiite-dominated government tightens its cordon there for offensives against ISIS and other Sunni militias.
In some areas of Mosul in particular, government forces are not in control, while the militants have also thrust into provinces north and east of Anbar.
ISIS and other Sunni extremist groups have also launched increasing episodes of attacks on civilians in Baghdad.
“Because of the pressure those terrorists are having in Anbar, many have escaped into Mosul, and Salahuddin and Diyala Provinces, as those provinces are safe areas for the terrorists,” said Juma Ibrahim, a member of Parliament’s security committee. “It is also a way to distract the security forces.”
Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, has said gunmen who were not involved in shedding Iraqi blood in Anbar would be given until Friday to retreat.
Up to 300,000 people have fled the conflict in Anbar in the past six weeks, moving to outlying areas in the province or migrating to other parts of Iraq, taking refuge in schools, mosques and other civilian buildings, according to a statement from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It said United Nations agencies continued to receive reports of civilian casualties there.