Cleric who criticized al-Qaida beheaded in north Iraq

Gunmen wearing Iraqi military uniforms beheaded an imam who had recently criticized al-Qaida and hung his head on an electricity pole in his village in northern Diyala province on Monday, police said. The dead man was 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 Abdullah, the cleric's son, said. Abdullah said the family did not realize his father had been killed until the four attackers left the house. Salhy had criticized al-Qaida in a speech at the local mosque last Friday.