Islamic State beheads 2 homosexuals in Iraq

Baghdad: The Islamic State group has publicly beheaded three men in northern Iraq, two of them for allegedly engaging in homosexual acts, according to photos shared by sympathisers on social media on Tuesday.

The jihadist group, which controls swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria, has carried out hundreds of executions as it has imposed its brutal version of Islamic law, many of them photographed or videotaped. The latest images did not show the claimed beheadings and their authenticity could not be independently verified.

A series of photographs shows the blindfolded men kneeling in the centre of what appears to be a traffic circle with a crowd of people looking on as a masked, black-clad executioner stands by with a long, rusty blade.