Dozens of people were held by at least two armed men inside the Lindt Café in Sydney’s central business district earlier today. Footage aired by the Australian television showed a black flag with white Arabic writings being held against a window of the place by terrified hostages. The flag belonged to the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, one of the Takfiri terror groups operating against the government in Syria.

Later reports identified the gunman, who was killed after commandos stormed the cafe held under siege for 16 hours, as Haron Monis, 49,describes himself as a convert to Sunni Islam. In his statement he expresses "allegiance" to ISIL and its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, calling the ISIL Caliph as his "Imam".

Also in his statement, the formerly Shiite Muslim underlines that he has converted to Sunni Islam, stressing that Shiites are blasphemous people.

He also underscores that the war in Iraq is not a sectarian strife, but a war between the Muslims (i.e. ISIL) and the hypocrites.

The self-styled cleric was described by his former lawyer as an isolated figure.

One of his demands was to have a flag of the ISIL, the Sunni-Takfiri militant group which recently seized territory in Syria and Iraq, to be delivered to the cafe to replace the Al-Nusra flag that he had taken to the cafe with himself.

The centre of the city was put in lockdown when the gunman seized the hostages early on Monday, forcing some of them to hold up the Al-Nusra banner at the window of the Lindt cafe.

The cafe is located in Martin Place, a busy shopping area in Sydney's financial district.

At least three people are reported dead, including Monis, after commandos stormed the cafe held under siege for 16 hours.

No one yet knows the underlying cause of the attack.

Reports in the local media suggest the commandos from the Royal Australian Regiment entered the building after the gunman started firing shots.

Shortly after 02:00 local time Tuesday (15:00 GMT Monday), several hostages fled from the building.

Minutes later, the commandos with assault rifles and wearing helmets and body armour could be seen piling into the cafe, tossing stun grenades ahead of them, and apparently opening fire.

Hostages ran to safety with their hands in the air. The dramatic scenes of the rescue operation were broadcast live on television.

A militant forum as well as pro-ISIL social media accounts published three pictures on Monday, showing the execution of the men in orange jumpsuits.

In the first picture, 11 men could be seen kneeling, with one black-clad and masked gunman behind each one.

In the next photo, the gunmen wave their handguns after the execution and in the third, a small gathering of onlookers, including children, can be seen near the 13 bodies.

According to local residents, the massacre was carried out on a large roundabout six kilometers (four miles) east of the city of Tikrit at around 3:30 pm (1230 GMT).

They said the roundabout is at an intersection for roads leading to Tikrit, Kirkuk, and the town of al-Alam.

The dead were reportedly members of an anti-ISIL group of Sunni tribal fighters known as the Knights of al-Alam, and the Takfiri terrorists captured them in Tikrit and al-Alam over a week ago.

The ISIL has been in control of Tikrit since the beginning of the militants’ major offensive in Iraq six months ago.

Earlier in December, tribal leaders said that the ISIL Takfiris abducted and killed 16 members of an Iraqi Sunni tribe, fighting the group in the western province of Anbar.

The ISIL terrorists control some parts of Syria and Iraq. They are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control. ISIL militants have terrorized and killed people of all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.

The death toll from a militant attack on an army-run school in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has risen to around 130 including 126 children, officials say.

The incident occurred on Tuesday when a group of pro-Taliban militants wearing military uniforms stormed the school in the city of Peshawar.

“The attack started with the gunmen entering the school in the morning hours and shooting at random,” said police officer Javed Khan.

There was also a huge blast inside the building. Hundreds of students and staff were present at the school when the attack began.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for the army's continuing operation against militants in the North Waziristan tribal area which borders Afghanistan.

The Pakistani army runs 146 schools nationwide for the children of military personnel and civilians.

In June, the Pakistani army launched a major offensive against militant hideouts in North Waziristan Agency after a deadly militant raid on Karachi Airport ended the government’s faltering peace talks with pro-Taliban militants.

Pakistan’s army claims it has killed over 1,600 militants so far, while losing 126 of its own soldiers. However, rights groups say a large number of civilians are among those killed in the Pakistani army operations.

This comes as Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence is known as the main supporter of the Taliban.

The North Waziristan region serves as a major base for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Haqqani network, which also targets US-led troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Cannon Andrew White claims the beheadings took place in a Christian enclave close to Baghdad which has been recently overrun by ISIS.

Cannon White, who has been ordered by the Archbishop of Canterbury to leave Iraq for his own safety, is one of only a handful of Christian leaders in the country.

He said: “we were in Baghdad, there were bombs and shootings and our people were being killed, so many of our people fled back to Nineveh, their traditional home.

“It was safer, but then one day, ISIS came in and they hounded all of them out. They killed huge numbers, they chopped their children in half, they chopped their heads off, and they moved north and it was so terrible what happened.”

He says that ISIS forced Christians to convert to Islam. “They said to one man, an adult, ‘Either you say the words of conversion to Islam or we kill all your children’.

Speaking to the Orthodox Christian Network, he said: “Islamic State turned up and said to the children, you say the words that you will follow Islam.

“The children, all under 15, four of them, said no. They chopped all their heads off. How do you respond to that? You just cry.”

"Fourteen policemen died during the counter-terrorism operation in Grozny," Russian agencies quoted a ministry spokesman as saying of the violence on Thursday.

Previously Russia's National Anti-Terrorist Committee said that 10 police and 10 rebels were killed as heavily armed gunmen stormed buildings including a school and exchanged fire with security officers.

Twenty-eight policemen were injured, with 12 airlifted for emergency treatment in Moscow. The interior ministry gave no new details on the injured policemen on Friday.

Authorities declared the counter-terrorism operation over on Friday after closing off the city centre on Thursday and deploying armed personnel carriers. A local market, a high-rise building housing media and a school were heavily damaged by fire and shooting.

Moscow has battled a simmering insurgency for several years in the North Caucasus after fighting two wars against separatists in Chechnya, with the violence subsequently spreading throughout the predominantly Muslim region.

Thursday's raid followed a suicide blast in October which killed five policemen as they tried to stop the suicide bomber from targeting a packed concert hall.