Militants fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq have savagely executed 10 doctors who refused to treat wounded members of the terrorist organisation . ISIS jihadis are understood to have been fighting local groups in the Hammam al-Alil area when several of them sustained injuries requiring medical treatment . When the doctors refused on the grounds they do not support the terror group 's activities , the men were brutally murdered . Scroll down for video . Details of the doctors ' brutal murders in the northern Iraqi desert were reported by the country 's Al-Sumaria satellite television network . Local official Mowaffaq Hamid al-Azawi described the city of Mosul as a big open-air prison , where residents are subjected to barbaric torture at the hands of the ISIS terrorists . The news comes as the jihadis reportedly executed 60 Sunni tribal fighters in Iraq 's Anbar province . Members of the Al-Karableh , Albu Ubaid , Albu Mahal and Albu Salman tribes were brutally executed after paranoid ISIS militants accused them of collaborating with the Iraqi security forces . Iraqi Army soldiers and the Iran-backed volunteer Shiite militias allied with the Iraqi regime have had great success in pushing ISIS out of key towns and villages recently . Just last week the security forces liberated the city of Tikrit - the birthplace of Saddam Hussein and a strategically important area from which the Iraqi Army will look to recapture Mosul and eventually force ISIS out of the country altogether . Militants : ISIS jihadis ( pictured ) are understood to have been fighting local groups in the Hammam al-Alil area when several of them sustained injuries requiring medical treatment . This morning U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the U.S. has made progress against ISIS in Iraq but can not predict how long the fight will take . Speaking at a joint news conference with his South Korean counterpart , Carter said he would not go so far as to say this is the beginning of the end for ISIS in Iraq . ISIS' onslaught plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since the 2011 U.S. troop withdrawal from the country . The militants have also targeted Iraq 's indigenous religious minorities , including Christians and followers of the ancient Yazidi faith , forcing tens of thousands from their homes . Since then , ISIS has carved out a self-styled caliphate in the large area straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border that it now controls . In early August , the United States launched airstrikes on the militant group in Iraq , in an effort to help Iraqi forces fight back against the growing threat by the IS militants , who still hold the northern Iraqi province of Ninevah and most of the western province of Anbar , in addition to small areas north of Baghdad in their hands , along with a large swath of land in neighboring Syria . More than 200 Yazidi prisoners have been set free in northern Iraq after nearly a year in Islamic State captivity , Kurdish military has said today . The freed prisoners said that they had been led to believe they were being led to their execution , but instead , were piled onto a minibus that drove them to peshmerga positions . The Yazidis , made up of women , children and the elderly , are said to be in poor health and bearing signs of abuse and neglect . Fear : The 216 prisoners , including 40 children , believed they were being led to their execution , but instead , were piled onto minibuses that drove them to a handover southwest of Kirkuk . Free at last : A mother hugs here young child in celebration at being released . The freed Yazidis were taken away by ambulances and buses to receive treatment and care . The 216 prisoners have been held captive in the Islamic State since last summer when militants attacked their villages in the area around Sinjar in northwestern Iraq . General Hiwa Abdullah , a peshmerga commander in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk , said that about 40 children are among those released , while the rest were elderly , some of whom were too exhausted and disoriented to speak . No reason was given for the release of the prisoners , which took place in Himera just southwest of Kirkuk , 180 miles north of Baghdad . The freed Yazidis were taken away by ambulances and buses to receive treatment and care . One elderly woman said she had been captured by the . insurgents last August when they overpowered Kurdish forces in . the Sinjar area and proceeded to purge its Yazidi population , . killing hundreds and taking thousands captive .
Jihadis were fighting in Hammam al-Alil , south of their Mosul stronghold . Several of them sustained injuries so visited local doctors for treatment . The next day the militants attacked a nearby checkpoint and killed at least 10 soldiers who tried to stop them. Terrorists then dragged the 10 men out in to the desert and shot them .