Militants execute 1,700 Iraqi soldiers

Another Iraqi town captured by ISIL

Baghdad: Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) boasted on Twitter that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi government soldiers, posting gruesome photos to support their claim.

The authenticity of the photographs and the insurgents' claim could not be verified, and Iraqi government officials initially cast doubt on whether such a mass execution took place.

There were also no reports of large numbers of funerals in the Salahuddin province area, where the executions were said to have been conducted.

If the claim is true, it would be the worst mass atrocity in either Syria or Iraq in recent years, surpassing even the chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian suburbs of Damascus last year, which killed 1,400 people and were attributed to the Syrian government.

Meanwhile, Sunni militants captured the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar early on Monday, its mayor and residents said, the latest blow to the Shiite-led government a week after it lost a vast swath of territory in the country's north.The town, with a population of some 200,000 people, mostly ethnic Shiite and Sunni Turkomen, was taken just before dawn, Mayor Abdulal Abdoul told The Associated Press. India said that it "firmly stands by" the Government and people of Iraq in their fight against "international terrorism" while expressing serious concern over the safety and security of its nationals in the violence-hit country.