ISIS claims responsibility for Iraqi troop massacre near Mosul

An Al Qaeda fringe group has claimed responsibility for the death of 15 Iraqi military troops who were killed in their barracks this week near Mosul, according to the Associated Press.

The 15 troops had been stationed near the northern city of Mosul to protect one of Iraq's crude oil pipelines used for exporting purposes when militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS, also known as ISIL) attacked the guards last Monday.

Eight out of the fifteen were beheaded by the militants and the remaining seven were shot, according to the report.

ISIS claimed responsibility in a statement on a jihadist website Sunday that was accompanied by a picture from the massacre.