Iraqi insurgents 'kill captives'

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An umbrella group of insurgents in Iraq has posted a video on the internet showing what it says is the killing of nine abducted Iraqi police and troops.

In an earlier video, the group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, had said it would kill the men if Sunni Muslim women in Iraqi prisons were not freed.

The authenticity of the videos could not be independently verified.

The Iraqi government has not confirmed whether any of its security personnel had been kidnapped.

The video posted on an Islamist website appears to show hooded gunmen shoot each of the nine men, who are bound and blindfolded, in the head.

The group said the men were seized in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, and included high-ranking officers - a claim previously denied by the Iraq interior ministry.

Previous claims

Last month, the Islamic State of Iraq, a coalition of Sunni insurgents including al-Qaeda in Iraq, claimed to have killed 20 kidnapped Iraqi police and soldiers.

In the online footage, the group said the Iraqi government had failed to meet its demands, including the handover of officers accused of raping a Sunni woman in Baghdad.

An interior ministry spokesman said the men in the video could not be identified and that the insurgents may have dressed up civilians to kill them.