IS claim abduction and murder of ten Iraqi police officers

Images shared online showed eight men in civilian clothing on their knees with IS militants pointing rifles at their backs. Another picture showed two men with IS militants holding knives beside them.

Iraqi police told AP Sunday that only nine troops from the federal police were kidnapped on Tuesday by undercover IS officers, who dressed as pro-government militia fighters.

The murdered officers were on leave when the militants stopped their SUV taxi at a checkpoint on a highway between the northern Kirkuk and Salaheddin provinces.

IS were defeated by Iraqi government forces with the fall of the northern city of Mosul to the US-backed army.

Sleeper cells and small pockets of IS territories still remain with the militants launching a number of attacks on security forces and the civilian population.