Cleric who criticised al-Qaeda beheaded in north Iraq

Gunmen wearing Iraqi military uniforms beheaded an imam who had recently criticised al-Qaeda and hung his head on an electrical pole in his village in Iraq's northern Diyala province on Monday, police said.                                           

Police said the attackers killed Sheikh Abdullah Shakoor al-Salhy, the imam of Saadiya village, about 150 km (90 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

"Gunmen wearing military uniforms raided our house early this morning to search it. They held us in a room and asked my father to show them the other rooms of the house," Muhammed Adulla, the cleric's son, said.                                           

Abdulla said the family did not realise his father had been killed until the four attackers left the house.                                           

Salhy had criticised al-Qaeda in a speech at the local mosque last Friday.

Violence has fallen sharply in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein but the insurgency unleashed by the invasion remains entrenched in religiously and ethnically mixed Diyala and other parts of northern Iraq.                                           

Insurgents have been able to exploit divisions in those areas to remain effective after being driven out of strongholds elsewhere.