What's the story of severed heads in Saddam Hussein’s city

separated from their bodies amid daily acts of violence since the overthrow of the former Iraqi regime in 2003.

Tikrit is the hometown of Saddam Hussein , who led Iraq for nearly three decades before his overthrow by the international forces led by America in 2003, he had been executed by the Iraqi authorities in 2006.

It took a special interest before overthrowing the former regime , such as in the quality of available services and the standard of living of its inhabitants , but the case has changed.

The city has turned into one of the hotbeds of tension in the inflamed violence that swept the country in the past ten years , as it seems that a lot of residents rebelled against the new reality after they were the rulers in the period of the former regime .

In the last two months , scenes of severed heads and bodies lying in the streets have repeated unusually sparking panic among civilians .

The residents of the city in one day woke up one day on noise sounds not far from the street only to find later severed head without the body lying in the street , according to what a resident from the city , named Naif al-Tikriti said to “Shafaq News " .

This was not the only awful scene for the residents because the thrown head on the side of the road soon exploded on the gathered people which led to the death of one of them and injured others .

Naif story was not the last chapters scenes of severed heads in Tikrit , where inhabitants had found in the past few weeks , seven severed heads at once in the center of the city while a severed head was found in a car on the road outside .

Tikrit , located in a desert area about 175 km northwest of Baghdad is of a predominantly Sunni population and was most loyal to Saddam Hussein before 2003.

Many of the sons of the city been engaged to those opposed to the U.S. presence in the country as well as the Shiite -led government after the departure of foreign troops in late 2011 .

Al -Qaeda-linked groups exploited the resentment of the population from the new reality to find a foothold in the city.

Cutting heads has become a method used by groups to kill their opponents for long years. The victims were killed in this way on a large scale during the sectarian violence between 2006 and 2008 .

Local authorities blame al Qaeda-linked groups on severed heads incidents to instill fear in the hearts of the people.

Khaled Jassim , a member of the Security Committee in the local provincial Council told “Shafaq News " that "the armed groups are trying to enter and spread terror in the hearts and spirits of the people as well as the fear and disruption of life in the open city to cities and other provinces that are suffering also from security deterioration."

Salahuddin provinces is surrounded by Kirkuk , Nineveh, Anbar , Diyala and Baghdad provinces, all of which are characterized by instability security .

Jassim added, “The Council will be in contact with the neighboring provinces , especially Nineveh to coordinate with them to prevent insurgents from crossing to and from Salahuddin”.

The supervisor of armed groups affairs, Hassan al-Jubouri believes that the severed heads events is a message from Al-Qaeda militants to security services specifically .

The Iraqi forces were in the range of violent attacks launched by Islamist militants in the past year , which has witnessed worsening violence in unrecorded manner since 2008.

Jubouri told “Shafaq News " that "the goal of cutting heads is to spread chaos and fear no more , the message is for the security services not the people."

He adds that “these attempts are intended to push people to feel that the police cannot protect civilians in any way.”

Lubna Mohammed, a government employee told “Shafaq News " , that " cutting heads culture is not the only thing that make us afraid but all security events that confuse our lives ."

A police officer with the rank of colonel assures population of the province, by saying, "there is no reason to fear “.

He told “Shafaq News” on condition of anonymity that " what is happening is a part of series of security events that occur and it is not strange to happen now”.