Chilling new images have emerged of three men accused of homosexuality and blasphemy being forced to their knees and publicly beheaded by a sword-wielding Islamic State executioner . Photographs of the barbaric murders show the blindfolded men kneeling in the centre of what appears to be a traffic roundabout with a crowd of people looking on as a masked executioner stands by with a long , rusty blade . After an elderly man uses a microphone to read to the crowd from his notes , the executioner then steps forward with the blade poised above the men 's heads in the unnamed city in northern Iraq . The executioner stands with the sword poised above the man 's head as a large crowd gathers to watch . The beheading appears to take place at a traffic roundabout in northern Iraq's Nineveh province . One of the blindfolded victims kneels with his head forward immediately prior to the beheading . Messages accompanying the images claimed two men were accused of homosexuality and a third of blasphemy . An elderly man reads to the crowd from his notes in the moments leading up to the three men 's deaths . Accompanying captions said the trio were then beheaded - two for engaging in homosexual acts and the third for alleged blasphemy - but there were no images released of the actual beheading . The jihadist group , which controls swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria , has carried out hundreds of barbaric executions as it has imposed its brutal version of Islamic law , many of which are photographed or videotaped . The photos were said to have been taken in Nineveh province - the first to fall to a sweeping IS-led offensive last June - but the exact location was not specified . Many young men have also been thrown from the roofs of buildings throughout ISIS-controlled areas after being accused of engaging in homosexual acts . The stomach-churning photographs usually show a blindfolded victim being dragged to the top of a building by black-masked militants . As crowds gather at street level the men are thrown to their death , while jihadis and members of the public use mobile phones to film the gruesome murders . Iraqi troops and militia are battling to push the jihadists back with support from a US-led coalition and Iran . But retaking Nineveh and its capital Mosul poses a major challenge for Baghdad 's forces , as the militants have had more than nine months to dig in . Iraqi forces launched a huge operation last week aimed at retaking the city of Tikrit that , if successful , would serve as a stepping stone towards Mosul . A crowd gathers around the outskirts of the traffic roundabout to view the bloody spectacle . Images of the bloodthirsty group 's latest execution come amid claims a former member of ISIS claimed he witnessed the British graduate dubbed Jihadi John behead a Japanese hostage . The man , named only as Saleh , said the masked militant who appears in several beheading videos was a senior figure in the extremist organisation responsible for murdering foreign captives . Jihadi John , who was recently unmasked as 26-year-old Londoner Mohammed Emwazi , was last seen in a video posted online which appeared to show Japanese hostage Kenji Goto lying dead . Saleh , who worked as a translator , also revealed that ISIS routinely subjected hostages to mock executions so that when their beheading did finally come they were not expecting to die , according to Sky News .
Masked jihadi executioner is filmed standing over men with huge sword . Kneeling before him are men accused of blasphemy and homosexuality . Chilling images show the men bent over at public site awaiting their death . ISIS militants claimed the a third were executed in a northern city of Iraq .