Horrific pics emerge of 25 women who were slaughtered in Baghdad after being branded prostitutes

Horrific pictures have emerged showing the bodies of some of the 25 women murdered in a raid on a Baghdad brothel. Gunmen wearing camouflage and carrying weapons fitted with silencers reportedly burst into two apartments in they city's Zayouna district on Saturday evening before massacring everyone inside.

Police arrived at the building to find blood streaming down the stairs. Inside they discovered the bodies of dozens of women scattered around two apartments. Continue...

Most of the victims appear to have been killed by gunshost wounds to the head. In one image the bodies of five women are seen slumped together on the floor of bathroom. 

In another the bodies of eight women are seen lying in a pool of blood in what appears to be a living room. MailOnline has decided not to publish these images.

A message scrawled on a wall inside one of the apartments read: 'This is the fate of any prostitution.'

While no group has yet claimed responsibility for the murders, locals believe the killings were carried out by Shiite militants opposed to prostitution.

A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said: 'When we walked up the stairs, we saw a couple of women's bodies and blood streaming down the stairs. We entered a flat and found bodies everywhere, some lying on the sofa, some on the ground, and one woman who apparently had tried to hide in a cupboard in the kitchen shot to death there.'

The attacks happened late on Saturday night at an apartment block in , a mixed Sunni and Shiite district of Baghdad.

Police believe men using silenced weapons carried out the executions, before scrawling 'this is the fate of any prostitution' on one of the doors.

Officers have now cordoned off the street, with residents reporting that the sole access point to the building has been blocked off.

Shiite militias have become more active on the streets of Baghdad since Sunni militants led by jihadist fighters took over large swathes of eastern and northern Iraq a month ago.

Culled from UK Daily Mail