Iraq to probe massacre of 70 civilians in village in Diyala

The governor of Iraqi Diyala province announced Tuesday forming a high-level security committee to investigate what he called the human horrific massacre involving more than 70 civilians, including women and children, in the village of Barwanah in Diyala province.

Unidentified gunmen killed more than 70 unarmed civilians who had fled clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants, a local source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The source added that it was too soon to draw conclusions and suggested IS could have been behind the deaths in the eastern village of Barwanah.

Last Friday, thousands of Iraqi army, police and Shiite militias backed by Iraqi aircraft launched a major offensive with the aim of ending the presence of the extremist militants in the country's province of Diyala.

However, despite the announcement of liberating Diyala, three Shiite militiamen were killed and four wounded Monday morning when a roadside bomb struck a Shiite militia vehicle near an orchard in northeast of Maqdadiyah, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The security situation in Iraq began to drastically deteriorate on June 10, 2014, when bloody clashes broke out between the Iraqi security forces and the IS group, an al-Qaida offshoot.

The group later took control of Iraq's northern province of Nineveh and later seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in other predominantly Sunni provinces. Endit