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Al Qaeda gunmen kidnap over 20 people north of Baghdad, 7 people executed

The extremists planted a false checkpoint on the road, stopping for an alleged check the vehicles, where their victims were going

CAIRO, June 11 (Itar-Tass) - The Al Qaeda gunmen kidnapped 22 people north of Baghdad. The armed group took several hostages overnight to Tuesday near Hamrin, which is situated 75 kilometres northeast of the city Baaquba, an administrative centre of the province Diyala, Iraqi media reported on Tuesday.

The extremists planted a false checkpoint on the road, stopping for an alleged check the vehicles, where their victims were going. Later the kidnappers took the hostages, which are the natives of the local tribe zarkush, in the unknown direction.

Seven hostages were executed. The law enforcers found them dead. The fate of other hostages is unclear.

A warlord of the local Al Qaeda unit was killed in a raid of the Iraqi law enforcement agencies at dawn in En-Nahiya, another district of Diyala. According to available reports, the warlord was behind the kidnappings and murders of local residents and law enforcers.

In the last few months the wave of inter-confessional violence has been rolling over Iraq and threatens to grow in a large-scale civil war. The explosions and attacks of the gunmen claimed over 1,000 lives in May, the United Nations Organization reported.

On Monday, the raids of the extremists resulted in the killing of over 80 people in the country. As many as 37 Iraqi citizens were killed and over 120 people were injured only in Mosul, 370 kilometres north of Baghdad.