A volunteer with the Iraqi security forces stands next to the wreckage of a vehicle belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) after the area was taken over by Iraqi security forces from ISIS militants in Adhaim, a village in Diyala province August 12, 2014. (REUTERS)
BAQUBA, Iraq: Jihadist fighters blew up a Shiite prayer hall in the Iraqi town of Jalawla Friday and publicly executed the muezzin, witnesses and a regional police chief said.
Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) fighters detained the muezzin, who calls for Muslim prayers, and blew up the Jalawla husseiniyah, a term used for a Shiite place of worship.
"Then they shot him dead in front of his mosque," said the police official for Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.
Witnesses confirmed the execution, which came four days after ISIS militants wrested control of the town from Kurdish peshmerga forces following two of deadly fighting.
In Sayed Ahmad village north of Jalawla, ISIS fighters also executed six policemen, the same sources said.
Kurdish forces lost at least 10 fighters in the battle for Jalawla, a strategic choke-point 130 kilometers northeast of Baghdad.
The ISIS' Sunni extremist fighters conquered large swath of Iraq's Sunni heartland in June, while Diyala province is mixed.
ISIS fighters acknowledge defeat in Kobani
Kurds battle ISIS around Kobani: activists
Iraqi Kurds gain ground from ISIS, local Sunnis wary
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