Militants attacked Iraqi police vehicles transporting inmates, and continued to gain ground in the north and west Monday — as President Obama all but threw in the towel on the embattled country.
Up to 71 inmates, five police officers and five jihadis were killed in the attack, as the convoy was moving from the Shiite city of Hilla south of Baghdad to another prison, the BBC reported.
The bloodshed came as the militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria secured key areas near the Syrian and Jordanian borders, and as the Iraqi military accused the rebels of massacring prisoners.
“Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have been beheaded and hung and their bodies have been desecrated,” said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, Iraq’s military spokesman.
Obama declared there was no way the United States could hold the disintegrating country together unless the Iraqis united to fight the jihadis themselves.
Meanwhile, a New York Times/CBS News poll said that 58 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama’s foreign policy, a jump of 10 points over the last month to the highest level of his tenure.