Mosul, Iraq - In the second such killing in as many days, police on Thursday said they had found the body of another member of the minority Yezidi sect murdered near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Police said the man had been shot in the head and in the chest, and that his body was found in the Bashiqa district east of Mosul, where Iraqi and US forces have recently ramped up their campaign to break insurgent groups responsible for deadly, and near-daily, attacks in and near the city.
Earlier on Thursday, four people were killed and a fifth was injured when a car bomb exploded as an Iraqi police patrol passed through western Mosul, police said.
On Wednesday afternoon, the body of another Yezidi man was found in a field, also near Mosul, an area where in recent years many Christians and members of other religious minorities in Iraq have been killed by insurgents.
Sunni extremists regard Yezidis as heretics, and members of the religious group say they have been subject to discrimination. Many Yezidis have fled Iraq to find refuge in other countries.
Iraqi security forces have arrested more than 100 insurgents in Mosul, some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, since they began an offensive dubbed "Operation New Hope" on February 20.